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THROUGH  THE  SIEVE 


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A  Group  of  Picked  Sayings 
Shortly  Told 


BY 


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ADDISON  BALLARD,  D.D. 

Author  op  "  From  Talk  to  Text"  and 
"Arrows;  or,  Teaching  a  Fine  Art" 


nS^liL/n 


NEW    YORK 

ROBERT  GRIER    COOKE 

INCORPORATED 

MCMVI 


COPYRIGHT      1906     BY 
ROBERT  GRIER  COOKE,  INC. 


TO 

MY  SON 
HARLAN  HOGE  BALLARD 


npHE  AUTHOR  is  pleased  to  acknowledge  the  courtesy 
*  with  which  the  Editors  of  The  Independent,  The  New 
York  Observer,  Christian  Intelligencer,  Christian  Work  and 
Evangelist,  Christian  Observer,  Interior,  The  Presbyterian, 
Sunday  School  Times  and  Christian  Endeavor  World  have 
given  their  cordial  consent  to  the  use  here  of  such  communi- 
cations by  the  author  as  have,  from  time  to  time,  appeared 
in  their  respective  periodicals. 


MOTTO  AND  MOTIVE 

If,  free  from  all  that  morbid  distrust  which  complains 
that  the  world  is  cold  and  unfeeling,  we  go  forward  to  meet 
it  with  open  hearts  of  sympathy,  and  ready  hands  of  help, 
we  shall  surely  succeed,  both  in  making  the  world  better  and 
happier  and  in  ourselves  being  made  better  and  happier 
by  the  world. 


CONTENTS 
I 

PAGE 

Three  Travelling  Companions i 

The  Unchangeable  Past i 

The  World's  Yesterday i 

New-snuffed 2 

Turned,  but  Not  Stopped 2 

What  We  Can 3 

The  Patience  of  Growth 3 

Write  to  Me  about  Heaven 5 

Charitable  to  Worms 6 

Not  Complaining,  but  Next  Door  to  It     .        .        .        .7 

Deeper  than  Regret 7 

Gk)D's  Love  for  the  Sinless 7 

Faith  Tested  by  Doubt 8 

A  Test  of  Power 8 

An  Ingot  of  Love 10 

Fancy  for  Fact 10 

Safety  in  Truth-telling 11 

The  Impracticables n 

Making  the  Best  of  a  Mistake 13 

How  Cathedrals  do  Not  Grow,  and  How  Oaks  and 

Lilies  Do 14 

Inanimation 15 

What  Comes  from  Looking 16 

Instantaneous  Verification 17 

Praying  Overdone I7 

Out-of-Place  Resolutions 19 

The  True  Confessional 19 

The  Ring  and  the  Feast 20 

Unfailing  and  Undiscouraged 20 

Whirled 21 

The  Troubleman 22 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

The  True  Master 23 

An  Unsuspected  Name 24 

Giving  Envy  the  Slip 24 

Bible  Perspective 26 

Hidden  Links 28 

Eyes  that  See 28 

Life,  Lord  over  Death 29 

II 

A  Sure  Guide  and  Goal 30 

SiGHT-w^oRSHip 32 

Bible  Kakography 33 

The  Right  of  Way 34 

Easily  Stopped 34 

A  Counterfeit  of  Life 35 

Gain  in  Beauty;  Loss  in  Power 35 

Heaping  and  Growing 36 

Taking  In  and  Giving  Out 2'^ 

The  Pterigium  of  Prejudice 38 

Sifted 39 

Prying  Under 40 

"Aha" 40 

Consistency  in  Wrong 41 

Remembered  and  Forgotten 42 

An  Unsafe  Venture 43 

A  Dishonor  to  God's  Love 44 

Welcome  Home 45 

No  Second-birth  Suicide 46 

A  Hidden  Danger 46 

Intercession  for  the  Ill-deserving 47 

Saved 48 

Created  to  Good  Works 49 

Growing  ;  Not  to  Grace,  but  in  It 50 

Something  to  Eat 50 


CONTENTS 


Climbing Si 

The  Spider's  Foot  for  the  Spider  s  Web    .        .        .        -52 

The  One  Thing  that  Counts 52 

Not  "  It,"  but  "  I  " 54 

The  One  Temptation 55 

Quitting  His  Observatory 57 

III 

A  New  Chime  of  Old  Bells 59 

Neighborliness  Next  to  Godliness 59 

An  Unwelcome  Gift 61 

A  Footpath  Venture 64 

Weaned 66 

Two  Summers 68 

Perfect  at  Last 70 

An  Original  Guest 71 

Varnish  and  Vitality y^ 

Apart  and  in  Secret 75 

Vulture  and  Dove yy 

The  Lower  Ennobled  by  the  Higher         .        .        .        -79 

"  Isms  "  and  "  Ists  " 81 

Going  Through  the  Motions 82 

The  First  and  Second  Births 83 

Unused  Spices 85 

The  Successful  Plea 88 

Common-sense,  Faith  and  Ignorance        .       .       .       .89 

IV 

A  Religion  of  Facts 93 

The  Multitude  of  the  Saved 96 

Enjoyment  Following  Surrender 98 

The  Silent  Life 100 

Prayer  Endings 104 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

A  Lesson  in  Christian  Warfare 107 

Saving  Himself  and  His  Hearers 108 

Eddy  and  Stream iio 

Beyond  Peradventure iii 

Reintroductions 112 

The  Cross  a  Symbol  of  Obedience 114 

Opportunity,  the  Test  of  Character         .        .        .        .117 

The  Weighing  of  a  King 119 

Paul's  Quarrel  with  Peter 121 

Not  a  Hoof  Behind 124 

From  Abel  to  Zacharias 126 

Self-harming  Haste 128 

Our  One  Concern 133 

A  Quick  Turn  from  Sorrow  to  Joy 139 

Satan's  Fall  Foreseen 143 

Love's  "  Finally  " 144 

V 

From  Cell  to  Song 147 

Best  of  All 147 

Recompense 147 

At  Home  to  Stay 148 

Just  as  Thou  Art 149 

The  Haystack  Centennial:  1806-1906      ....  150 


THROUGH  THE  SIEVE 


The  essence  of  aphorism  is  not  so  much  inge- 
nuity as  good  sense  brought  to  a  point. 

JOHN   MORLEY 

A   weighty  adage   may   sometimes   do   more 
good  than  a  labored  discourse. 

MATTHEW   HENRY 


THROUGH   THE   SIEVE 


THREE   TRAVELLING   COMPANIONS 

It  is  but  a  short  distance  that  Duty  travels  alone. 
She  is  not  long  on  the  road  before  she  overtakes  Love, 
and  it  is  then  not  long  before  Duty  and  Love  overtake 
Joy,  and  the  three  become  thereafter  inseparable  com- 
panions and  continue  and  complete  their  heavenward 
journey  together. 

THE   UNCHANGEABLE    PAST 

Moment  by  moment  the  fluent  future  stiffens  into 
the  unchanging  and  unchangeable  past.  With  solemn 
exactness  the  pulseless  hand  of  Time  is  shaping  the 
enduring  mould  and  the  story  of  our  lives  is  flowing 
into  it,  fixed  in  the  eternal  stereotype  of  God's  omni- 
science. 

THE    WORLD'S   YESTERDAY 

The  Clock  of  History  beats  centuries  instead  of 
seconds,  and  the  millenniums  of  men  are  but  the  yes- 
terdays of  God. 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

NEW-SNUFFED 

When  a  certain  New  England  divine,  whose  evan- 
gelistic zeal  was  taken  by  his  brethren  as  a  sign  of 
doctrinal  unsoundness,  was  asked  pointedly  if  he  were 
not  one  of  the  "  New  Light  "  theologians,  he  answered 
promptly,  "  No,  I  am  not  a  '  New  Light ' ;  I  am  only 
an  old  light,  new-snuffed." 

TURNED,  BUT  NOT  STOPPED 

Half-way  between  North  and  South  Williamstown, 
Mass.,  the  impetuous  current  of  Green  River  running 
northward  strikes  at  right  angles  against  a  ledge  of 
immovable  limestone.  The  obstruction,  however,  does 
not  lessen  in  the  least  the  volume,  force  or  freedom 
of  the  stream.  Cheerfully  complying  with  this  unmis- 
takable command  that  it  proceed  no  farther  in  its  for- 
mer direction,  without  a  moment's  cavil  or  complaint, 
the  stream  instantly  turns  to  the  east;  and  although 
apf)earing  confused  and  agitated  for  a  moment,  yet 
a  few  rods  farther  down  we  see  it  flowing  on  just 
as  freely  and  rejoicingly  as  ever,  watering  without 
stint  and  freshening  with  beauty  the  new  banks  within 
which  Nature  has  seen  fit  to  direct  its  course. 

"  The  Spirit  suffered  them  not "  was  the  rock 
against  which  two  gospel  preachers  once  ran  when 
attempting  to  enter  a  new  field  of  their  own  selection. 
But  although  turned  back,  they  do  not  complain. 
The  headlong  current  of  their  zeal  suffers  not  the 
slightest  abatement.    It  finds  no  difficulty  in  turning  a 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

short  corner.  With  the  full  force  of  its  original  im- 
pulse it  flows  across  the  ^gean  into  Macedonia,  where 
its  course  is  marked  by  new  churches  springing  up 
along  that  unsought  but  divinely-selected  coast. 

Next  to  love  as  an  incentive  to  Christian  labor  is 
the  assurance  that  God  gives  shape  and  turn  to  our 
endeavors  and  determines  the  form  and  measure  of 
our  success. 

WHAT   WE    CAN 

The  old  farmer  is  still  busy.  Too  feeble  longer  to 
swing  the  scythe,  he  rakes  after  the  cart. 

The  out-worn  railway  engineer  is  not  wholly  retired 
at  once.  He  is  given  an  easier  position,  and  is  glad 
to  take  it. 

The  overtaxed  teacher  teaches  fewer  subjects  and 
fewer  hours.  That  prince  of  teachers,  President  Mark 
Hopkins,  of  Williams  College,  continued  to  meet  some 
of  his  former  classes  to  almost  the  last  day  of  his 
fourscore  and  five  years. 

Compelled  by  physical  infirmity  to  forego  his  or- 
dinary pulpit  ministrations,  the  retired  preacher  may 
yet  address  by  pen  and  press  an  unassembled  multi- 
tude far  exceeding  in  number  his,  for  a  time,  sorely 
missed  Sabbath  congregation. 

If  no  longer  what  we  would,  then  not  only  sub- 
missively, but  cheerfully  and  thankfully,  what  we  can. 

THE   PATIENCE    OF   GROWTH. 

Madame  D'Arblay  once  wrote  to  her  son  in  college, 
3 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

"  We  never  touch  others  where  we  study  to  show  that 
we  are  touched  ourselves.  You  once  wrote  me  a 
letter  so  very  fine  that  if  it  had  not  made  me  laugh, 
it  would  have  made  me  sick.  Be  natural  and  you  will 
be  sure  to  please  without  wasting  your  time." 

A  famous  picture  which  it  took  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds 
but  ten  hours  to  paint,  represented  twenty  years  of 
study  and  practice.  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,  on  being 
asked  how  long  it  took  him  to  compose  a  certain  mas- 
terly discourse,  is  said  to  have  nonplussed  his  ad- 
miring parishioner  by  the  reply,  "  To  write  that  ser- 
mon ?    Why,  sir,  it  took  me  thirty  years !  " 

Precocity  is  risky.  The  sapling  trying  to  swell  at 
once  to  the  size  and  glory  of  an  oak  would  only,  by 
the  bursting  of  its  bark,  put  back  by  so  much  its  normal 
growth. 

Look  at  the  scalloped,  delicate  lines  of  the  sea-beach. 
They  tell  the  limits  of  the  spreading  surf,  where  lay 
the  frill  of  the  apron  which  the  breakers  shook  out 
upon  the  strand.  They  seem,  at  first,  like  the  marks 
which  he  who  leaps  for  mastery  makes  as  soon  as  his 
feet  strike  the  ground.  But  these  lines  more  than 
tally  the  successive  achievements  of  shallow,  rival 
waves.  The  waves  themselves  were  not  born  of  either 
the  moment  or  the  shore.  They  are  not  the  outcome 
of  a  spasmodic  summoning  up  of  an  ambitious  energy. 
They  register  for  the  wide,  unfathomable  sea ;  the  sea 
which  fills  great  submarine  valleys,  and  covers  hidden 
mountain  peaks,  and  kisses  the  rim  of  the  great  At- 
lantic basin  on  either  hemisphere.    Small  and  delicate 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

as  those  lines  are,  they  are  here  and  could  be  here 
only  because  of  what  the  ocean  is,  and  of  what  the 
moon  is,  and  of  what  the  tides  are.  They  are  not  a 
performance,  but  the  tokens  of  a  great  life,  a  sublime 
actuality,  a  true  and  mighty  existence. 

In  like  fashion,  should  each  man's  mental,  ethical  and 
spiritual  endeavors  be — not  a  series  of  ambitious,  con- 
vulsive performances,  but — a  life,  the  spontaneously 
growing  fruit  of  a  good  tree — representing  honestly 
Tennyson's 

"  The  fruitful  hours  of  slow  increase." 

WRITE  TO  ME  ABOUT  HEAVEN 

As  any  life,  so  any  and  every  death  means  a  great 
deal  to  Jesus.  "  There  goes  a  funeral  procession," 
says  one.  "  That's  nothing,"  says  the  other,  "  funerals 
somewhere  in  the  city  every  day  of  the  year."  Very 
likely  some  indifferent  by-stander  said  that  about  the 
funeral  procession  that  went  out  of  the  gate  of  the  city 
of  Nain.  But  it  was  not  Jesus  who  said  it.  His  heart 
was  with  the  widowed  mother's  heart  breaking  over 
the  loss  of  her  only  son.  Nor  do  I  think  it  was  for 
that  mother's  sake  only  that  Jesus  stopped  the  bier 
and  restored  her  son  to  life.  It  was  to  assure  us  that 
there  is  nowhere  and  never  a  death,  no,  not  even  of 
a  little  child,  that  does  not  mean  a  great  deal  to  Him. 
He  consoles  us  by  instructing  us  how  to  interpret  the 
open  grave  of  any  dear  child  of  God.  "  What  are  you 
digging  that  hole  for?"  I  ask  the  King's  gardener. 
"To  bury  this  seed  in,"  he  replies;  "a  seed  from  the 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

King's  conservatory — a  small,  weak  thing,  but  from  it 
rises  a  beautiful  flower  for  the  King's  palace." 

Such  was  the  unshaken  and  comforting  belief  of  the 
friend  who,  writing  to  me  of  the  loss  of  one  very  dear 
to  her,  said,  "  Write  to  me,  but  do  not  write  a  letter 
of  condolence.     Write  to  me  about  heaven." 

CHARITABLE   TO    WORMS 

Many  persons  like  butterflies  who  are  not  fond  of 
caterpillars.  You  try  to  reason  with  them.  You 
ask,  "  Do  you  not  know  that  this  despised  caterpillar 
will  be  a  butterfly  one  of  these  days ;  a  beautiful,  airy, 
winged  creature ;  a  floating,  flying  flower  ?  " 

"  It  may  be  an  incipient  butterfly,  for  all  I  know 
about  it,"  the  answer  is,  "  but  just  now  it  is  a  worm 
and  nothing  but  a  worm ;  an  ugly,  crawling  thing. 
Butterflies  I  like  well  enough,  and  when  this  worm,  if 
it  ever  does,  gets  to  be  a  butterfly,  I  will  like  it,  but 
not  before," 

Here  is  a  man  who  is  a  Christian,  you  are  told.  He 
doesn't  act  much  like  a  Christian,  though.  He  is  irri- 
table, impatient,  narrow,  conceited,  discourteous,  proud, 
arrogant,  envious ;  or  he  is  stupid  and  awkward ;  or 
he  is  gloomy  and  unsocial.  But  his  name  is  on  the 
church  records  and  you  are  told  that  you  must  love 
him,  not  because  he  is  perfect,  but  because  he  is  a 
Christian  and  because  he  will  be  a  beautiful,  a  sancti- 
fied character,  one  of  these  days,  in  heaven.  You  reply, 
"  Well,  when  he  gets  into  that  shape,  I  will  love  him, 
but  not  before." 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

It  is  no  doubt  true  that  we  shall  admire  and  love 
some  persons  in  another  world  that  we  do  not  greatly 
admire  or  love  in  this. 

But  just  here,  a  caution ;  don't  let  those  who  are  not 
butterflies  themselves,  as  yet,  take  too  much  upon 
them  as  if  they  were.  They,  too,  are  still  in  the  ver- 
micular stage,  and  about  themselves  are  some  things 
not  altogether  pleasing  or  perfect.  Let  worms  be  char- 
itable to  worms. 

NOT  COMPLAINING, 
BUT  NEXT  DOOR  TO  IT 

I  do  not  complain ;  at  least,  I  do  not  mean  to  com- 
plain ;  yet  I  often  say  or  think  somewhat  gloomily : 
"  This  seems  to  be  a  part  of  my  trial  and  I  suppose 
I  must  bear  it."  But  would  I  say  that  were  I  truly 
and  wholly  submissive? 

DEEPER   THAN    REGRET 

True  repentance,  as  distinguished  from  mere  worldly 
sorrow,  means  a  quick,  clean  cutting  off  of  the  old 
sinning  and  sinful  self,  leaving  no  ragged  edges  of 
shamed  and  floundering  regret. 

GOD'S    LOVE   FOR   THE    SINLESS 

Monotony  breeds  inappreciation.  We  forget  God's 
goodness  to  us  from  our  having  come  to  take  it  as 
a  matter  of  course.  The  father's  love  for  the  "  elder 
son  in  the  field  "  was  as  true  and  as  strong  as  was  his 
love  for  the  husk-eating  prodigal.    It  would,  however, 

7 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

have  remained  unexpressed  but  for  the  younger  son's 
repentance  and  return.  It  would  have  been  exercised 
and  expressed  in  the  same  way  of  forgiveness  toward 
the  elder  brother,  had  he  been  the  one  to  leave,  and 
the  younger  to  stay. 

It  is  because  the  angels  understand  this  better  than 
did  the  complaining  elder  brother  that  there  is  joy 
in  heaven  over  one  repenting  sinner,  more  than  over 
ninety  and  nine  that  need  no  repentance. 

Mercy  comes  as  a  new  after-thought.  It  is  the 
fulness  of  love  discovered  to  itself. 

FAITH   TESTED    BY   DOUBT 

Victor  Hugo  speaks  of  darkness  as  a  quickener  of 
the  eyesight :  "  As  the  pupil  of  the  eye  dilates  in  the 
night  until  it  at  last  finds  day,  even  so  the  soul  dilates 
in  misfortune  until  it  at  last  finds  God." 

Jesus  foresaw  the  doubt  and  perplexity  into  which 
His  disciples  would  be  plunged  by  His  death.  He  knew 
that  Cleopas  would  say  long  before  he  said  it :  "  We 
trusted  that  it  had  been  He  who  should  have  redeemed 
Israel."  This  doubt  and  anxiety  He  might  have  easily 
enough  prevented.  He  might  have  "  opened  their  un- 
derstanding to  understand  the  Scriptures  "  before  His 
resurrection  as  well  as  after.  It  was  by  being  left  for 
a  while  in  doubt  that  they  learned  to  trust  in  the  dark. 

A   TEST   OF    POWER 

Taking  up  to  read  for  the  first  time  Mrs.  Browning's 
poem,  "  The  Seraphim,"  I  find  it  introduced  thus :  "  It 

8 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

is  the  time  of  the  crucifixion,  and  the  Father  of  the 
Crucified  One  has  directed  toward  earth  the  angels  of 
His  heaven,  of  whom  all  have  departed  except  Ador 
the  Strong  One  and  Zerah  the  Bright  One.  The  place 
is  outside  the  shut  heavenly  gate." 

It  coming  to  me  that  I  shall  better  appreciate  the  poem 
if  I  first  try  my  own  hand  at  it,  I  close  the  book  and 
cast  about  for  some  theme  in  history  less  momentous, 
but  nearer  and  more  familiar.  The  outbreak  of  our 
Civil  War  suggests  itself  as  a  fitting  parallel,  a  nation's 
life  in  peril,  the  call  for  volunteers,  the  quick  answer 
of  a  host  of  young  men,  who  at  once  quit  happy  homes 
for  bloody  battlefields.  Of  a  given  neighborhood  two 
only  are  staying  behind.  Loving  alike  their  country 
and  alike  sympathizing  with  their  brothers  already  in 
the  field,  the  stronger  of  the  two  asks  impatiently  of 
the  other,  "  Why  stand  we  here  all  the  day  idle  ?  "  All 
the  weaker  can  do  at  first  is  to  assent  passively  to  the 
questioning  reproach  of  the  stronger ;  but,  unable  at 
length  to  hold  out  further  against  so  manly  an  appeal, 
he  yields,  and  both  start  for  the  scene  of  conflict. 

I  now  find  myself  heart  to  heart  with  the  poet,  and 
taking  my  pen  to  write  what,  as  I  conceive  it,  Ador 
the  Strong  One  will  say  to  Zerah  the  Bright  One,  I 
rise  more  easily  by  this  gradation  of  effort  to  the  poet's 
more  sublime  conception,  and  am  at  the  same  time 
made  more  deeply  conscious  than  I  could  otherwise  be 
of  her  transcendent  reach  and  power  of  imagina- 
tion, and  of  the  beauty  and  strength  of  her  poetic 
expression. 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

AN    INGOT   OF   LOVE 

On  this  smooth  agate  table  are  a  hundred  chilled 
steel  balls.  How  can  we  make  them  into  one?  Put 
a  cast-iron  band  around  them?  But  that  does  not 
make  them  one.  I  know  of  no  way  of  doing  it  except 
to  melt  them.     Then  they  run  together  of  themselves. 

Proud,  unsubdued  hearts  stand  stiffly  and  stoutly 
apart.  How  bring  them  into  loving  communion? 
Hoop  them  together  by  some  ecclesiastical  or  symbolic 
band?  They  may  be  no  nearer  together  than  before.* 
But  let  them  all  be  melted  in  sweet  contrition  at  the 
feet  of  the  crucified  Jesus  and  they  flow  instantly  to- 
gether into  one  blessed  ingot  of  love. 

FANCY    FOR    FACT 

Bishop  A.  once  told  Bishop  B.  in  my  presence  that 
while  he  was  kneeling  at  the  shrine  in  the  Church  of 
the  Nativity  in  Bethlehem,  he  had  a  strong  feeling  of 
assurance  that  he  was  praying  at  the  very  place  where 
Jesus  was  born. 

"  Oh  no,"  exclaimed  Bishop  B.,  "  your  deep  de- 
votional feeling  made  a  fact  for  you  where  no  such 
fact  existed;  as  Bishop  Gobat,  of  Jerusalem,  assures 
me  that  the  most  careful  investigation  has  failed  utterly 
to  identify  the  so-called  '  sacred  places.'  " 

Even  strong  and  cultured  minds,  we  see,  may  be 
objectively  misled  by  their  subjective  moods  to  believe 

*  Indeed,  through  pride  of  denomination  or  creed,  they  may  be 
farther  apart  than  ever. 

10 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

most  confidently  that  certain  things  exist  that  do  not 
exist. 

So  of  our  dislikes,  protests  and  resentments  against 
slights,  neglects  or  wrongs  of  which  we  are  convinced 
that  we  have  been  the  objects.  Be  it,  that  there  is 
some  ground  for  our  resentful  emotions.  Dwelt  upon 
and  brooded  over,  they  are  sure  to  intensify  themselves 
into  gross  and  self-harming  exaggerations. 

SAFETY   IN    TRUTH-TELLING 

We  are  safe  in  our  talk  only  as  we  say  the  thing  that 
is  in  our  thought.  He  who  prevaricates  touches  the 
spring  of  a  hidden  trap  whose  pitiless  jaws  fly  up  in 
the  least  expected  moment  and  seize  and  hold  fast 
their  despised  and  helpless  victim.  He,  on  the  con- 
trary, whose  "  yea  is  yea  and  his  nay,  nay,"  goes  forth 
with  open  brow  and  unfearing  heart,  needing  no 
hiding-place.  The  universe  is  his  home,  and  in  any 
part  of  it  he  is  safe. 

THE   IMPRACTICABLES 

It  was  the  custom,  so  we  read,  of  the  most  observing, 
most  seriously-contemplative  and  wisest  Teacher  the 
world  has  ever  seen,  to  make  a  study  of  children  at 
their  plays,  especially  where  they  liked  best  to  play,  in 
the  market-places.  One  day  as  He  was  passing  along 
He  noticed  that  although  the  children  were  there  as 
usual,  they  were  not  playing  as  usual.  He  watched 
them  to  see  why.     He  soon  saw  why.     He  saw  that 

zi 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

while  some  of  the  children  appeared  to  be  honest  and 
good-natured  and  wanting  the  play  to  go  on,  the  others, 
for  some  reason  or  other,  seemed  to  be  out  of  sorts; 
captious,  cross  and  self-willed — ugly,  in  short.  Noth- 
ing suited  them.  They  said  they  would  bolt  unless 
they  could  have  things  their  own  way ;  and  yet,  strange 
to  say,  they  could  not  agree  among  themselves  what 
that  way  should  be.  The  good-tempered  ones  tried 
every  reasonable  way  to  please  them.  "  Let  us  try 
dancing,"  they  said,  and  instantly  they  began  to  blow 
a  lively  tune  on  their  toy  pipes.  But  dance  the  others 
would  not.  "  Suppose  we  play  funeral,  then,"  and 
at  once  they  turned  themselves  into  "  pretend  "  mourn- 
ers and  began  to  make  believe  cry.  But  the  discon- 
tented "  fellows  "  would  not  join  in  the  lamentation, 
either.  And  then  did  the  great  patriot-moralist  and 
teacher  see,  and  plainly  told  the  people  what  he  saw ; 
that  he  saw  reflected  in  the  children's  games,  as  in  a 
mirror,  that  whole  generation  of  men;  men  who  by 
their  follies  and  indiscretions  had  gotten  themselves 
and  their  country  into  serious  trouble,  but  who  then 
found  no  end  of  fault  with  the  wiser  and  better  dis- 
posed who  were  trying  to  help  them  out  of  their 
diflficulties,  so  that  all  might  have  again  the  same 
"  good  times  "  that  they  used  to  have. 

How  it  turned  out  with  the  children  we  are  not  told. 
Probably  the  clear-headed  and  right-tempered  ones 
concluded  that  the  best  way  for  them  was  to  go  right 
on  with  the  music  and  dancing,  and  leave  the  imprac- 
ticables  to  go  on,  if  they  liked,  with  the  funeral. 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 


MAKING   THE   BEST   OF   A   MISTAKE 

Paul  is  being  taken  as  a  prisoner  to  Rome  at  a  time 
of  the  year  when  navigation  of  the  Mediterranean 
begins  to  be  dangerous.  Accordingly,  having  reached 
the  island  of  Crete  in  safety,  Paul  advises  the  cen- 
turion Julius,  in  whose  charge  the  prisoners  are,  to 
wait  at  "  Fair  Havens  "  for  settled  weather.  His  ad- 
vice is  not  taken.  The  centurion,  trusting  to  what 
he  deems  the  superior  wisdom  of  the  supercargo,  and 
ship-owner,  decides  to  continue  the  voyage.  He  soon 
finds,  however,  that  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  and  a 
prisoner  at  that,  may  possibly  know  something  worth 
attending  to,  even  about  business.  It  is  not  long  before 
the  ship  begins  to  be  knocked  about  by  an  insolent 
and  loud-mouthed  sea  that  pays  no  sort  of  respect  to 
the  authority  of  even  an  imperial  captain.  Just  as  the 
apostle  had  foreseen,  that  surly  giant  of  the  Adriatic, 
Euroclydon,  falls  soon  after  into  one  of  his  wrathful 
periodic  fits,  and  begins  to  bufifet  with  merciless  fury 
the  unwary  vessel. 

Here  is  a  good  chance  for  Paul  to  take  his  revenge. 
The  taunt  would  have  been  in  order,  "  I  gave  you  fair 
warning.  You  have  run  into  this  danger  with  your 
eyes  open,  and  now  you  must  get  out  of  it  the  best 
way  you  can."  But  Paul  is  of  a  different  spirit.  It 
is  but  proper  self-respect  for  him  to  say  as  he  did : 
"  Sirs,  you  should  have  hearkened  unto  me,  and  not 
have  loosed  from  Crete  and  to  have  gained  this  harm 
and  loss."    But  this  is  no  ugly  "  I  told  you  so."    Paul 

13 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

does  not  sulk  and  throw  up  the  whole  business  because 
his  advice  was  not  taken.  He  has  no  small  pride  that 
must  be  apologized  to  before  he  will  offer  help. 
Frankly  accepting  the  situation,  he  applies  himself 
manfully  to  the  bettering  of  it.  Instead  of  weakening 
his  already  disheartened  shipmates  by  selfish  re- 
proaches, he  strengthens  them  with  words  of  cheer. 
He  recalls  their  mistake,  not  to  make  capital  out  of  it 
for  his  own  reputation,  but  that  his  comrades  may  the 
more  easily  rise  above  the  mistake  when  they  see  how 
heartily  he  can  himself  forgive  and  how  thoroughly 
forget  it.  "  One  glance  only  at  the  mistake  and  the 
harm;  now  let  it  go  forever,  and  let  us  do  what  we 
can  to  better  the  present  and  brighten  the  future." 

HOW   CATHEDRALS   DO   NOT   GROW,   AND 
HOW    OAKS    AND    LILIES   DO 

The  visitor  to  Morningside  Heights,  New  York  City, 
casts  an  admiring  glance  upward  to  the  "  Cathedral  of 
St.  John  the  Divine,"  now  rising  slowly  but  surely 
to  its  magnificent  completion. 

But  to  simple  admiration  would  surely  succeed  a 
wonder  beyond  power  of  expression  were  the  beholder 
as  he  stands  gazing,  to  see  the  sublime  structure,  wall 
and  arch  and  dome  and  tower,  going  higher  and  higher 
all  of  their  own  undirected  and  unaided  accord — 
neither  architect,  superintendent  or  workman  in  sight ; 
no  scaffolding,  and  not  only  no  derrick  with  its  long 
sweeping  arm  stretched  out  to  lift  huge  blocks  and 
beams,  but  no  beams  or  blocks  in  sight  to  lift. 

14 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

Yet  how,  again,  must  both  admiration  and  wonder 
mount  to  almost  incredulous  amazement  were  the 
already  rapt  beholder  to  be  assured  that  all  which  the 
architect  had  done  was  to  bury  his  plans  and  specifica- 
tions at  foundation  depth,  having  first  imparted  to 
them  the  power  to  do  as  they  would  like  with  the 
earthy  material  around  them ;  to  change  that  formless 
material  into  bronze,  marble,  steel  or  wood ;  to  give 
to  each  product  thus  transformed  its  own  fit  size  and 
shape ;  to  lift  each  to  its  own  proper  place ;  and,  to 
crown  all,  power  to  drop  from  turret-top  and  pinnacle 
fully  formed  and  safely  folded  plans  and  specifications 
for  other  like  and  alike  self-erecting  cathedrals. 

In  such  case,  supposing  it  to  exist,  will  not  this  won- 
dering beholder  feel  himself  constrained  to  pause 
awhile  and  very  thoughtfully  to  "  consider  "  this  build- 
ing— "  how  it  grows !  " 

INANIMATION 

The  violet  is  an  original  composition.  Yet,  in  a 
sense,  it  is  all  borrowed — part  soil,  part  sunlight,  part 
water,  part  air.  It  could  not  be  the  beautiful  thing  it 
is  were  it  not  a  great  and  persistent  borrower.  But 
neither  could  it  be  were  it  not  also  a  transmuter  and 
a  composer.  Borrowing,  transmuting  and  composing 
make  it  an  original  product. 

We  make  another's  thought  our  own — "  appro- 
priate "  it — only  as  we  weave  it  into  the  texture  of 
our  own  minds.  Memorizing  is  not  appropriating. 
Memory  is  the  room  on  the  ground  floor  of  the  mill 

IS 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

where  the  raw  silk  is  stored.  While  the  finished  fabric 
is  borrowed,  in  a  sense,  from  the  cocoon,  it  is  much 
more  than  that.  It  is  full,  in  every  part,  of  invisible 
human  brain  issue ;  quite  as  much  man  as  moth.  We 
store  up  knowledge ;  fill  our  minds  with  it.  Then  we 
•weave  our  own  literary  fabrics.  It  is  the  personal 
weaving  that  makes  them  original. 

In  mind  and  body  alike  assimilation  precedes  com- 
position. A  hand  is  composed,  but  after  its  own 
peculiar  fashion.  It  grows,  and  is  an  original  product. 
No  lover  offers  the  chemist's  carbon,  oxygen  and 
nitrogen  to  his  lady-love ;  he  presents  to  her  the  rose. 
We  go  to  market  for  provisions ;  but  when  we  meet 
our  friends  we  do  not  exchange  lamb  chops  and 
potatoes ;  we  shake  hands. 

Writers,  whether  of  essays,  sermons,  lectures  or 
poems,  go  first  to  the  world's  literary  markets.  They 
must  go.  "  Give  thyself  to  reading  "  was  an  inspired 
Apostle's  charge  to  a  young  preacher.  But  when 
Timothy  comes  to  preach,  does  he  preach  from  a  book  ? 
What  is  read,  rather,  must  be  made  one's  own  by  in- 
animation, just  as  its  food  the  body  makes  its  own  by 
incorporation.  Another's  thought  must  be  not  simply 
down-written ;  it  must  be  in-written  as  well.  Then  it 
may  be  written  up  and  written  out.  Assimilation,  noth- 
ing short  of  that,  is  honest  appropriation. 

WHAT   COMES    FROM    LOOKING 

"  Come,  look  through  this  telescope,"  cries  the 
astronomer  to  the  hurrying  passers-by.     "  Only  look, 

i6 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

and  you  will  see  such  glories  of  the  sky  as  will  give 
you  nobler  thoughts  than  you  have  ever  dreamed  of 
before."  So  do  all  those  find  it  who  heed  the  call,  and 
look.  And  the  longer  they  look,  the  more  ennobled  in 
thought  and  aspiration  do  they  become. 

In  like  manner  are  all  those  who  halt  their  eager 
chase  after  mere  worldly  good,  and  who  "  with  open 
face  behold,  as  in  a  glass,  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
changed  into  the  same  image  from'  glory  to  glory, 
even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord." 

INSTANTANEOUS    VERIFICATION 

Were  any  man  to  have  a  doubt  as  to  the  professedly 
correct  scientific  principles  of  the  telephone,  we  would 
not  call  him  skeptical  merely,  but  uncandid  and  per- 
verse, were  he  to  refuse  to  speak  through  the  instru- 
ment, or  if  he  did  speak,  were  he  to  refuse  to  hold 
to  his  ear  the  disk  which  returns  the  answer.  For 
him  who  tries  it,  on  the  other  hand,  the  fact  of  inter- 
communication is  instantly  verified. 

The  peace  which  follows  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  full  felicity  of  loving  God,  and  the  reality 
of  communion  with  Him  by  prayer,  are  susceptible 
of  like  instantaneous  verification.  Any  man,  earnest 
to  "  seek,"  has  but  to  try  it  and  he  will  know. 

PRAYING   OVERDONE 

The  suppliant  retires  from  the  audience-chamber  of 
the  King  as  soon  as  the  King  has  granted  his  request. 

17 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

He  leaves  the  King's  palace  and  goes  out  upon  the 
King's  highway  to  find  and  to  rejoice  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  desire. 

The  leper  came  begging  that  he  might  be  cleansed ; 
the  centurion  that  his  servant  might  be  healed.  No 
sooner  had  Jesus  granted  the  cleansing  and  the  cure 
than  He  said  to  each,  "  Go  thy  w^ay."  To  the  sinning 
woman's  tears  of  penitence  came  the  gracious  answer, 
"  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee ;  go  in  peace." 

Shall  the  healed  paralytic  still  hug  his  bed;  the 
fever-stricken  his  couch  after  the  fever  has  left  him ; 
Lazarus  his  grave-clothes,  when  once  the  life-restoring 
"  Come  forth  "  has  been  spoken ;  the  sinner  his  guilt, 
when  Jesus  has  declared,  "  I  forgive  "  ?  Shall  the  child 
of  God  ever  lie  in  perpetual  bondage  through  fear  of 
death  now  that  Jesus  has  promised,  "  He  that  belie veth 
on  me  shall  never  die  "  ? 

Has  the  church  prayed  long  and  earnestly  that  all 
nations,  races  and  religions  may  be  opened  to  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel?  For  answer  comes  re-com- 
manded the  ascension  charge,  "  Go  thy  way.  Fill  to 
overflowing  your  mission  treasuries.  Seek  out,  en- 
courage, train  and  send  forth  your  choicest  young  men 
and  young  women  to  the  world's  end.  To  the  world's 
end  the  world  is  open." 

It  is  time  to  stop  praying  and  begin  acting  and  re- 
joicing when  our  prayer  has  been  answered.  Pro- 
longed and  agonizing  supplications  are  then  but  the 
fruit  of  a  halting,  unready  faith. 


i8 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

OUT   OF    PLACE   RESOLUTIONS 

A  father  bids  his  boy  go  at  once  on  a  certain  errand. 
Is  it  in  place  for  the  boy  to  say,  "  Yes,  father,  I  am 
resolved  to  go  and  do  that  errand  for  you  "  ?  He  is 
not  to  resolve  to  go ;  he  is  to  go.  In  such  a  case,  re- 
solving to  obey  is  not  to  obey ;  it  is  to  put  off  obeying. 

That  old  stanza,  once  everywhere  sung  in  New  Eng- 
land revivals : 

"  Come,  humble  sinner,  in  whose  breast, 
A  thousand  thoughts  revolve. 
Come  with  your  guilt  and  fear  opprest, 
And  make  this  last  resolve," 

is,  therefore,  wholly  mistaken  advice.  Such  a  resolu- 
tion is  like  a  carriage-wheel  lifted  from  the  ground. 
"  Revolve  "  never  so  swiftly,  it  makes  not  a  particle  of 
progress.  Lower  the  indecisive  axle  till  the  tire  touch 
the  ground ;  now  the  wheel  does  more  than  revolve ; 
it  goes  forward — a  type  of  resolution  coincident  with 
action. 

THE   TRUE    CONFESSIONAL 

It  would  not  have  done  at  all  for  the  prodigal  to 
have  gone  to  the  house  of  some  old  neighbor  and  have 
there  told  the  tale  of  his  wickedness.  It  was  against 
his  father  he  had  sinned,  and  to  that  father  he  must 
acknowledge  his  transgression. 

There  is  no  one  but  God  to  whom  we  can  make  un- 
reserved confession.  Should  we  undertake  to  confess 
to  men,  it  would  be  but  a  half  confession.    We  would 

19 


THROUGH     THE     SIEVE 

confess  a  few  amiable  weaknesses  about  which  we 
would  seem  to  be  greatly  exercised,  whereas  what 
really  troubled  us  would  be  things  a  thousand  times 
worse,  which  we  would  not  confess  at  all.  It  is  not  the 
lava  streaming  down  its  sides  that  shakes  Vesuvius, 
but  the  pent-up  fires  within. 

THE   RING   AND    THE    FEAST 

Had  the  prodigal  of  the  parable  yielded  to  that 
unworthy  distrust  and  fear  which  too  often  beset  too 
many  of  us,  he  would  not,  directly  on  his  return,  have 
gone  to  meet  his  father.  He  would,  instead,  have  gotten 
over  the  wall  of  some  field  down  the  road  and  at  an 
out-of-sight  distance  from  the  house,  and  would  have 
gone  to  work  there  with  his  elder  brother,  saying  to 
himself :  "  When  father  comes  out  and  sees  how  much 
good  work  I  have  done,  it  may  be  that  he  will  let 
me  come  home  and  give  me  a  place  again  at  the  familv 
table." 

Ordinarily,  when  a  man  wants  anything  for  himself 
— a  coat  or  a  pair  of  shoes — he  buys  and  pays  for  them. 
A  gold  ring  may  be  bought  for  the  buyer's  own  use. 
But  there  are  rings,  we  know,  which  are  gifts  and 
pledges  of  love.  So  the  father  gave  the  shoes,  the 
robe,  the  ring  and  the  feast,  not  because  the  prodigal 
had  worked  for  and  earned  them,  but  because  he  was 
his  boy,  and  because  he  had  come  home. 

UNFAILING   AND   UNDISCOURAGED 

Rising  slowly  in  its  might,  a  huge  wave  rolls  in  from 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

the  ocean  and  dashes  itself  with  a  great  roar  on  the 
beach.  An  inexperienced  observer  might  well  conclude 
that  such  a  standard  of  energy  as  that  could  not  long 
be  maintained.  The  sea  must  sooner  or  later  exhaust 
itself  by  such  vast  forth-putting  of  its  power.  So,  for 
a  brief  interval,  it  would  seem;  the  next  few  waves 
being  so  small  and  feeble.  But  presently  in  comes 
another  long  roll  just  as  grand,  just  as  irresistible  as 
the  first.  Watch  long  as  we  will,  we  discover  no 
abatement  in  the  sea's  strength.  Our  confidence  in 
the  constancy  of  the  vast  power  at  work  is  increased 
rather  the  longer  we  look. 

He  shows  himself  to  be  but  a  like  impatient  and 
superficial  observer  of  events  who,  from  the  occasional 
lessened  activity  of  the  church  of  Christ,  argues  the 
gradual  exhaustion  of  either  God's  purpose  or  power 
to  regenerate  the  world.  Back  of  the  truce  with  evil 
which  He  may  seem  at  any  time  to  have  called.  His 
unchanging  love  is  preparing  for  new  onsets  and  vic- 
tories unmatched  by  any  that  have  gone  before.  "  The 
Mighty  God,"  He  is  also  the  "  Everlasting  Father  " ; 
as  unwearying  in  His  purpose  as  He  is  unwasting  in 
His  power. 

WHIRLED 

What  if  we  do  have  electricity  and  steam  to  whirl 
us  from  any  given  meridian  round  the  globe  in,  as  it 
were,  the  twinkling  of  an  eye?  Can  sin  and  sorrow 
be  whirled  out  of  our  consciences  and  hearts  as  honey 
is  whirled  out  of  the  cells  of  the  honeycomb  ?    Can  we 

21 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

never  be  easy  in  mind  unless  our  bodies  are  forever  on 
the  go  ? 

Better,  if  one  must  choose,  a  thousand  times  better, 
to  sit  still  while  God,  in  answer  to  our  quiet  and  loving 
trust,  unbinds  the  burdens  of  our  guilt  and  grief,  and, 
by  an  instantaneous  and  returnless  transit,  removes 
them  from  us  as  far  as  the  east  is  from  the  remotest 
west — than  travel,  no  matter  how  fast  or  how  far, 
provided  we  must  take  along  and  bring  back  with  us 
the  same  uneasy  consciences  and  the  same  unsatisfied 
hearts. 

Good  and  important  as  rapid  transit  is  in  itself,  the 
real,  abiding  happiness  of  the  world  is  to  be  increased, 
not  by  swifter  trains,  automobiles,  telegrams  or  ships, 
but  by  a  quieter  and  more  heart-staying  trust  in  God 
and  by  a  more  outgoing  and  outgiving  love  to  our 
fellow-men. 

THE   TROUBLEMAN 

In  any  city,  or  town's  lighting-system  something  is 
always  getting  out  of  order,  in  either  the  street  or 
house-lights.  In  the  company's  office  is  always  on 
duty  a  man  whose  business  it  is  to  correct  any  trouble 
of  the  sort  as  soon  as  it  is  reported  to  him.  This  ex- 
plains what  I  once  saw  hanging  on  the  wall  of  an  elec- 
tric company's  office.  Next  to  the  "  dynamo-tender's 
report  "  hung  the  "  troubleman's  report." 

Jesus  Christ  offers  Himself  to  us  as  "  Troubleman  " 
for  all  kinds  of  soul  distemper  or  disorder — no  sorrow 

22 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

He  will  not  relieve,  no  fever  of  passion  He  will  not  sub- 
due, no  sin  He  will  not  forgive,  no  bad  disposition  He 
will  not  correct,  no  bondage  of  fear  He  will  not  break, 
no  death  shadow  He  will  not  illumine.  The  one  con- 
dition of  cure  and  comfort  is  that  we  do  not  bear  our 
trouble,  letting  it  go  unreported ;  or,  when  reported, 
reporting  it  to  our,  perhaps,  equally  suffering,  equally 
helpless  fellow-mortals,  instead  of  reporting  it  directly 
to  Him. 

THE   TRUE    MASTER 

Deeper  far  than  the  incentive,  "  Be  true  to  yourself," 
penitent  trust  in  Christ's  supplies  a  wholly  new  and 
sure  ground  of  motive  and  efifort.  It  is  no  longer  the 
old,  endless  and  despairing  struggle  against  this  and 
that  particular  sin ;  more  effective  by  far  than  the 
effort  of  pride  to  become  humble,  of  parsimony  to 
become  liberal,  of  rebelliousness  to  become  submissive, 
of  revengefulness  to  become  forgiving,  of  vileness  to 
become  pure.  What  is  now  required  of  me  for  my 
salvation  is  not  that  by  force  of  my  own  unaided  will 
Thenceforth  love  God  supremely  and  my  neighbor  as 
myself,  but  that  I  seek  and  accept  forgiveness  for  my 
self-confessed  violations  of  those  just  requirements ; 
not  that  by  resolute  exertion  to  break  the  chain  of  my 
depravity,  I  seek  to  become  my  own  master  and  then 
be  "  true  "to  my  still  unholy  "  self,"  but  that  in  self- 
distrust  and  self-renunciation  I  make  Christ  my  Master 
and  then  be  true  to  Christ. 

23 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

AN    UNSUSPECTED    NAME 

I  say  to  an  acquaintance  :  "  I  saw  you  in  such  a  place, 
at  such  a  time,  doing  so  and  so.  I  suppose  it  was  all 
right,  seeing  it  was  you ;  but  had  it  been  some  other 
man,  I  should  have  said  at  once  that  there  was  some- 
thing wrong  about  it." 

If  he  reply,  "  My  long-standing  good  reputation  will 
shield  me  from  public  insinuation;  others  not  so  for- 
tified might  not  be  able  to  stand  the  strain  but  I  can," 
then  is  he  already  on  the  verge  of  making  an  utter 
shipwreck  of  character.  No  honest  man  asks  ex- 
emption from  merited  reproach  on  the  ground  of  a 
hitherto  good  name ;  on  account,  either,  of  any  ad- 
vantages he  may  enjoy  of  wealth,  culture  or  social 
position.  The  same  searching  wind  of  deserved  cen- 
sure that  blows  chill  and  keen  through  the  cracks  of 
the  poor  man's  hovel,  finds  its  sure  way  through  the 
rose-wood  shutters  of  the  rich  man's  palace.  No  baser 
prostitution  of  talent,  intelligence  or  wealth  than  put- 
ting them  to  the  unworthy  use  of  making  doubtful 
practices  seem  respectable.  Putting  one's  religious 
profession  to  such  use  is  basest  of  all. 

GIVING   ENVY   THE   SLIP 

In  the  eyes  of  his  fellow-townsmen  it  was  little  short 
of  a  crime  that  one  of  their  young  men,  who  had  been 
known  among  them  as  only  a  humble  mechanic,  had 
quitted  His  native  town  and  had  achieved  success 
abroad  as  a  religious  teacher  and  worker  of  miracles. 

24 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

On  His  revisiting  His  home,  it  was  in  their  thought,  if 
not  on  their  tongues,  to  challenge  the  genuineness  of 
His  fame  by  saying  to  Him  :  "  Physician,  heal  Thyself ; 
whatsoever  we  have  heard  done  in  Capernaum,  do  here 
also  in  Thy  country."  Because  of  His  declining  to 
humor  this  supercilious  and  shallow  prejudice  they 
rise  up  as  one  man  and  thrust  Him  out  of  the  town, 
determined  to  end  the  upstart  preacher's  pretensions 
by  pitching  him  over  the  precipice  on  which  their  town 
was  built. 

The  provocation  was  great;  how  did  He  meet  it? 
Did  He  resent  the  rudeness,  upbraid  the  ingratitude, 
denounce  the  injustice  ?  Did  He  seek  to  kill  the  envy 
that  sought  to  kill  Him? 

Not  only  did  He  not  try  to  kill  it ;  He  did  not  try  to 
disarm  it,  even.  To  have  attempted  either  would  have 
taken  time  and  thought  which  could  be  better  spent. 
After  all,  the  attempt  if  made  would  have  been  likely 
to  fail.  Malice  born  of  narrow-minded  prejudice  has 
great  pertinacity  of  life. 

He  did  better.  He  resorted  to  the  calm  strategy  of 
circumventiori.  He  at  once  foiled  and  rebuked  the 
senselss  opposition  by  a  circumambiency  of  new  and 
more  widely  useful  endeavor :  "  He  went  round  about 
the  villages,  teaching." 

He  did  not  stop  to  brood  over  slights,  calumnies,  re- 
jections and  ill  appreciation.  He  let  them  quietly 
alone.  Although  feeling  them  keenly  enough  at  the 
time,  He  yet  managed  to  forget  them  by  unceasing 
activity  in  His  appointed  work.    Even  for  those  who 

25 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

had  sought  to  destroy  Him,  He  did  what  Uttle  He  could 
but,  what  was  vastly  more  to  the  purpose,  He  began 
at  once  to  encircle  them  with  a  chain  of  loving  service 
in  behalf  of  others,  who  both  gladly  recognized  His 
mission  and  accepted  gratefully  His  proffered  help. 

BIBLE    PERSPECTIVE 

The  traditional  space  put  in  the  binding  of  our 
Bibles  between  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  is  mis- 
leading as  to  the  oneness  of  the  whole  Book.  Matthew 
is  as  truly  a  continuation  of  Malachi  as  Malachi  is  of 
the  foregoing  prophets,  from  a  number  of  whom  he 
is  separated  by  about  the  same  interval  of  time  that 
he  is  from  Matthew.  So,  too,  "  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testament  Dispensations  "  is  a  misleading  phrase,  if 
taken  to  mean  that  blessings  of  an  entirely  different 
sort  were  dispensed  under  the  "  New  "  from  those 
which  were  distributed  under  the  "  Old."  The  phrase 
respects  not  the  matter  of  the  dispensations,  but  the 
manner  only;  just  as  the  same  moisture  of  the  air  is 
"  dispensed  "  in  different  forms  and  degrees,  as  either 
dew,  rain,  sleet,  snow,  or  hail ;  just  as  the  same  gold 
of  the  king's  exchequer  might  be  dealt  out  as  either 
bullion,  unrecognized  save  by  a  few  as  part  of  the 
royal  treasure,  or  as  coin  of  the  realm,  bearing  clearly 
on  its  face  the  king's  image  and  superscription,  and 
offered  freely  to  all.  Christianity  is  but  the  bullion 
of  Judaism  coined  in  the  gospel  mint,  to  be  scattered 
broadcast  over  the  earth,  and  made  the  universal  cur- 
rency of  the  world. 

26 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

Will  some  one  of  the  knowing  ones,  who  are  fond 
of  asserting  that  the  Christian's  God  is  a  mild  evolu- 
tion of  some  sterner  god  of  the  Jews,  be  kind  enough 
to  tell  us  of  the  time  when  God  was  ever  one  whit 
less  loving,  merciful,  or  gracious  than  He  is  to-day? 
Let  him  tell  us,  if  he  can,  who  but  the  God  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures  it  was  that  "  passed  by  iniquity, 
transgression,  and  sin,"  that  was  "  slow  to  anger  and 
of  great  mercy,"  that  was  "  good  to  all,  and  His  tender 
mercies  over  all  His  works."  But  no.  Precisely  the 
same  grace,  mercy,  and  love  were  dispensed  then  as 
now,  only  that  now  they  are  given  with  greater  clear- 
ness and  fulness,  and  with  wider  range  of  distribution. 

No  man,  whatever  his  genius  for  discrimination, 
can  rightly  comprehend  the  map  even  of  his  own  coun- 
try so  long  as,  microscope  in  hand,  he  persists  in 
flattening  his  nose  against  the  surface,  content  with 
his  ability  to  detect  minute  errors  in  the  spelling  or 
location  of  small  and  unimportant  places.  It  is  only 
the  man  who  stands  far  enough  away  from  the  map 
tO'  get  the  true  perspective  who  takes  in  the  grand 
unity  of  the  whole,  or  can  read  in  the  great  letters 
stretching  across  the  entire  canvas,  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific,  "  The  United  States  of  America." 

Precisely  so,  no  near-sighted,  short-range,  micro- 
scopic criticism  of  doubtful  and  insignificant  details 
can  possibly  gain  or  give  any  broad-minded,  compre- 
hensive view  of  the  Bible  as  one  Book,  by  one  Author, 
with  one  aim: 


27 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

HIDDEN    LINKS 

With  his  deep-sea  fingers  the  geologist  traces  the 
mountain  ridges  which  far  below  cleat  together 
parted  and  jealous  continents.  So,  beneath  all  the 
surface  barriers  of  race,  color,  caste  and  sex ;  of  rude- 
ness or  refinement ;  of  occupation  or  position,  the  Bible 
makes  all  men  to  be  of  one  family  for  whose  salvation 
the  one  Father  has  made  equal  and  full  provision 
in  the  Gospel  of  His  Son. 

EYES    THAT    SEE 

The  stock-broker,  produce-dealer,  banker,  merchant, 
pleasure-seeker,  fashion-worshipper;  each  sees  in  the 
daily  prints  or  hears  at  the  exchanges  precisely  that 
for  which  he  has  an  eye  or  an  ear — things  which 
others  having  just  as  good  eyes  and  ears  do  not  see 
or  hear.  Not  the  shortest  "  Work  Wanted  "  in  the 
smallest  type,  that  upon  it  some  eye  is  not  riveted. 
What  an  unseeing  or  unhearing  person  needs  is  not 
better  lenses  or  drums,  but  that  quick  attention  which 
real  interest  secures. 

Jonathan  Edwards  scanned  the  secular  journals  of 
his  day  (there  were  no  others)  for  such  bits  of  in- 
formation as  he  could  glean  from  them  of  the  con- 
dition and  prospects  of  Christ's  Kingdom  in  any  part 
of  the  world.    What  he  had  an  eye  for,  he  saw. 

The  "  Jerusalem  Hebrew  Gazette  "  (had  there  been 
one)  would  have  printed  in  small  pica  the  rumor  that 
certain   Gentile   outcasts   had  embraced   Christianity. 

28 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

Yet  that  small  piece  of  news  the  "  apostles  and  the 
brethren  in  Judea  "  (Acts  io:i-i8)  would  have  picked 
out  from  the  long  string  of  paragraphs  as  the  gem 
of  the  collection. 

LIFE,    LORD    OVER   DEATH. 

Life  is  more  than  life.  It  not  only  lives ;  it  quickens 
death. 

A  clod  of  dead  earth  lies  buried  here.  Left  to  itself, 
it  stays  dead  forever.  But  down  there  in  the  darkness 
a  living  tendril  of  a  living  root  of  a  living 
plant  is  feeling  after  this  dead  clod,  finds  and 
touches  it,  and,  by  touching,  imparts  to  it  of  its  own 
life ;  then  gives  to  it  honored  fellowship  with  itself 
in  all  the  beauty  of  the  rose  or  grandeur  of  the  oak. 
A  life-touch  and  from  lifeless  lumps  a  nodding  violet, 
a  perfumed  lily,  a  towering  palm. 


29 


II 


A    SURE    GUIDE   AND   GOAL 

When  the  Arctic  explorer,  Nansen,  announced  to 
the  crew  of  the  Fram  his  determination  to  quit  the 
ship  for  good  and  all  and  push  his  way  northward 
alone  over  the  ice-fields,  Petersen  begged  that  he 
might  accompany  his  captain  on  the  journey. 

"  It  will  be  no  child's  play,"  said  Nansen.  "  The 
journey  will  be  one  not  only  of  severe  hardship,  but 
of  great  danger." 

"  I  would  not  think,"  replied  Petersen,  "  of  taking 
it  alone,  but  with  you  along,  I  know  it  will  be  all 
right." 

The  world's  best  framed  code  of  morals  leaves  us 
stranded  on  the  way  to  our  strenuously  sought  goal 
of  a  perfect  life  as  discouragingly  as  the  Fram  halted 
Nansen  on  his  way  to  the  Pole.  In  this  crisis  of  our 
need,  Jesus  appears  and  encourages  our  quest  with 
the  assurance  that,  if  we  but  follow  in  His  steps,  He 
will  make  our  seeking  a  success. 

But  first  He  would  have  us  consider  well  what 
following  in  His  steps  means — the  living  by  us  of  the 
same  self-denying,  cross-bearing  life  that  He  Him- 
self lived  here  on  the  earth — a  life  of  equal  love  to 
our  neighbor  and  of  supreme  love  to  God;  the  doing 
to  others,  in  all  our  social  and  business  relations,  as 

30 


THROUGH     THE     SIEVE 

we  would  have  them  do  to  us;  the  refusing  to  put 
fame,  power,  wealth  or  selfish  ease  or  advantage 
before  love;  the  suffering  of  loss,  if  need  be,  in  the 
maintaining  of  this  high  standard;  meekness  under 
wrongs  done  to  us ;  forgiveness  for  the  wrong  done, 
and  for  the  evil  a  return  only  of  good ;  obedience  to 
whatever  it  be  God's  will  that  we  should  either  do 
or  suffer. 

To  live  such  a  life  as  this  in  such  a  world  as  this 
Jesus  would  at  the  outset  have  us  understand  is  no 
"  child's  play."  On  the  contrary,  that  it  means  hard- 
ness to  be  endured,  dangerously  misleading  by-paths 
to  be  shunned,  rising  inclinations  to  turn  aside  or 
turn  back  to  be  steadfastly  resisted ;  a  fight  against 
disloyal  doubt  to  be  fought  in  right  soldierly  fashion, 
and  fought  to  a  triumphant  finish. 

What  the  hardships  and  perils  of  that  Arctic  ex- 
pedition from  the  Fram  would  prove  to  be,  Nansen 
himself  could  no  more  tell  than  could  his  would-be 
follower.    It  would  be  an  equal  risk  for  them  both. 

In  Jesus  we  have  an  experienced  as  well  as  a  faith- 
ful guide.  He  knows  the  way;  is  Himself  the  way. 
He  knows  our  need ;  just  what  strength  for  whatever 
weakness,  what  support  under  whatever  burden  of  care, 
what  succor  for  whatever  kind  of  temptation,  what 
comfort  for  whatever  sorrow,  what  courage  for  what- 
ever disheartening  fear.  More  than  guide.  He  is  also 
a  companion ;  eating  with  us  the  bread  of  whatever 
trial,  tasting  with  us  the  cup  of  whatever  affliction. 
He  not  only  feels  for  us ;  He  feels  with  us.     Hence 

31 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

the  calm  and  fearless  trust  with  which  we  go  on  to 
meet  whatever  the  future  may  have  in  store  for  us, 
in  assured  confidence  that  we  shall  be  welcomed,  at 
last,  to  the  joy,  in  heaven,  of  our  faithfully  followed 
Leader  and  Guide. 

SIGHT-WORSHIP 

In  a  crowd  the  little  child  holds  tight  to  its  father's 
hand.  In  the  heart  of  a  forest  the  traveller  fears  losing 
sight  of  his  guide.  Like  the  child  and  the  traveller 
we  are  all  beset  by  dangers,  to  defend  us  from  which 
we  need  a  higher  wisdom  than  our  own.  For  those 
who  believe  in  either  one  Supreme  Being  or  many 
superior  beings,  it  is  the  greatest  of  comforts  to  know 
that  He  or  they  are  both  ever  near  them  and  ever  able 
and  willing  to  defend  them  from  all  that  is  evil  and 
bring  them  to  all  that  is  good. 

It  is  in  this  natural  and  universal  feeling  that  idol- 
atry, or  sight-worship,  has  its  root  and,  to  a  certain 
extent,  its  justification.  If  I  can  see  the  God  I  wor-^ 
ship,  then  I  know  that  He  sees  me ;  that  He  takes 
note  of  my  homage,  beholds  my  offerings  and  hears 
my  prayers.  Better,  a  thousand  times  better,  the 
devout  idolater  than  the  no-God  atheist  or  the  know- 
nothing-of-God  agnostic.  For  idol-worship  is  still 
.  worship ;  a  humble  acknowledgment  of  dependence 
on  divine  wisdom  and  strength.  As  much  better  than 
atheism  or  agnosticism  as  a  living  tree,  however  dis- 
figured by  unsightly  excrescences,  is  better  than  a  dead 
tree,    however    tall    and    shapely;    better    as    crudest 

32 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

petroleum,  which  may  yet  be  refined  to  brilliancy,  is 
better  than  deadly  gas,  however  scientifically  prepared, 
which  extinguishes  any  light  over  which  it  is  poured. 
Be  it  that  idol-worship  is  but  a  pitiful  mockery  of  the 
soul's  deepest  need,  it  is  still  a  constant  reminder  of 
that  unsatisfied  need.  Such  a  point  of  union  is  thus 
established  between  polytheism  and  Christianity  as 
easily  accounts  for  the  welcome  which  the  honestly 
inquiring  idol-worshipper  has  gladly  given  to  those 
new  and  trustworthy  answers  of  Revelation  which  give 
true  scope  and  direction  to  the  hitherto  blind  impulses 
and  aspirations  of  his  religious  nature. 

BIBLE   KAKOGRAPHY 

Like  those  other  "  poor  "  of  whom  Jesus  tells  us, 
we  have  poor  Bible-spellers  with  us  always.  I  myself 
know  one  of  them  at  least  whom  it  took  years  to  spell 
rightly  the  little  Bible  word  "  all." 

It  was  always  written  plainly  enough,  for  example, 
that  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanses  from  all 
sin,"  that  "  All  manner  of  sin  shall  be  forgiven,"  and 
that  "  All  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that 
love  God."  Yet,  strange  to  say,  a  morbid  and  purblind 
conscience,  although  seeking  the  very  rest  which  such 
assurances  were  intended  to  give,  would  insist  on 
spelling  the  "  all,"  s-o-m-e. 

May  it  not  be  that  this  misography  of  a  weak  faith 
is  even  now  making  many  a  Bible  reader,  instead  of 
walking  in  the  clear  sunlight  of  hope,  grope  and 
stumble  in  the  gloomy  labyrinth  of  fear? 

23 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

THE   RIGHT   OF   WAY 

Wind  shows  its  power  disastrously  only  when  it 
meets  with  opposition ;  only  when  it  finds  something  in 
its  path  that  would  stop  its  progress.  The  force  of 
water  running  freely  is  hidden ;  as  is  also  that  of 
electricity  along  a  free  wire.  Digestion  causes  un- 
easiness only  when  the  digestive  energy  is  in  some 
way  obstructed.  So,  although  the  Gospel  is  a  mighty 
power,  it  makes  commotion  only  in  hearts  opposed 
to  its  progress.  In  hearts  or  homes  where  it  has  "  free 
course,"  it  is  "  glorified,"  even  in  its  greatest  energy, 
as  a  Gospel  of  perfect  peace. 

EASILY    STOPPED 

In  less  than  a  minute  with  one  blade  of  your  pocket- 
knife  you  may  kill  a  mountain  cedar  while  it  is  yet 
sleeping  in  its  little,  wind-swayed,  cone-hammock; 
albeit,  once  grown,  it  holds  fast  its  place  for  centuries 
on  the  slopes  of  Lebanon,  grasping  great  boulders  with 
its  roots,  while  with  its  trunk  and  top  it  stands  co- 
wrestler  with  the  whirlwind. 

A  baby's  foot  may  crush  the  egg  of  an  eagle  or  of 
an  anaconda ;  although,  let  it  be  for  a  little,  the  one 
will  carry  off  a  child  in  his  strong  talons  and  the  other 
will  strangle  horse  and  rider  in  his  dreadful  folds. 

With  something  of  the  same  ease  may  good  and 
evil  be  destroyed  in  their  beginnings ;  whether  a  new 
habit,  a  new  home,  a  new  child,  a  new  community, 
or  a  new  nation. 

34 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

A  parable  of  Nature  on  the  "  divinely-announced 
importance  of  cradles." 

A   COUNTERFEIT    OF   LIFE 

As  there  is  an  erudition  which  is  but  a  mass  of  un- 
digested knowledge  kept  idly  on  deposit  in  the  cold 
storage  of  the  memory,  so  there  is  a  kind  of  monog- 
enous  morality,  born  of  worldly  prudence  as  its  sole 
parent,  which  is  but  ethical  behavior  resolved  into  rule. 
What  the  tow,  wire  and  glass  eyes  are  to  the  eagle 
in  the  taxidermist's  shop-window,  such  is  a  religious 
creed  which  serves  no  higher  purpose  than  to  keep 
the  outward  life  in  becoming  shape ;  whereas  the  same 
spiritual  truth  digested  and  assimilated  is  what  its 
food  is  to  the  living  eagle  and  which  makes  of  him 
a  soaring  aspirant  of  the  air,  the  mountain  and  the  sky. 

GAIN   IN   BEAUTY;   LOSS   IN   POWER 

A  rose  may  so  increase  the  number  and  showiness 
of  its  petals  as  to  lose  all  power  of  self-propagation. 
The  sermon  may  be  so  highly  adorned  with  the  graces 
of  style  as  to  yield  no  fruit  in  the  consciences  and 
lives  of  its  hearers.  The  liturgy  may  be  so  sesthetically 
elaborated  as  to  exalt  art  above  devotion,  and  so 
change  the  call  from,  "  Worship  the  Lord  in  the 
beauty  of  holiness,"  to,  "  Worship  Beauty  in  the  holi- 
ness of  the  Lord." 

So  that,  whether  it  be  rose,  rhetoric,  or  ritual,  undue 
ornamentation  tends  alike  to  impotency. 

35 


THROUGH     THE     SIEVE 

HEAPING   AND    GROWING 

Heaping  is  enlarging  of  bulk  by  mechanical  super- 
position. Growing  is  swelling  out  from  an  organizing 
and  unifying  life-centre.  We  are  not  heaped  up ;  we 
grow.  Bodies,  minds  and  hearts  are  for  a  far  nobler 
end  than  to  serve  as  so  many  marvellously  constructed 
warehouses  of  bodies  stuffed  with  victuals ;  of  minds, 
with  facts ;  of  hearts,  with  creeds.  The  dwarf  eats 
enough  to  make  an  athlete,  the  bookworm  reads 
enough  to  make  a  scholar,  the  formalist  believes 
enough  to  make  a  saint.  The  larder,  library  or  litany 
may  be  mine,  but  what  of  me? 

TAKING    IN    AND    GIVING   OUT 

If  I  may  be  allowed  the  "  free  coinage  "  of  a  con- 
venient word,  I  would  say  that  donability,  or  the 
ability  to  give,  is  always  conditioned  upon  suscepti- 
bility, which,  looking  at  its  root-meaning,  we  see  to  be 
simply  the  ability  to  take. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  once  said  to  a  friend: 
"  Come  with  me  out  to  my  farm,  and  I  will  show  you 
what  a  tree  can  do  when  you  give  it  a  chance !  "  And 
what  was  the  secret  of  that  grand  old  evergreen's 
magnificent  success  but  that  it  had  kept  on  steadily 
enlarging  year  by  year  its  susceptibility,  or  taking 
power,  until  at  length  there  was  as  much  of  the  tree 
below  ground  as  there  was  above,  and  until  the 
aggregate  of  its  leaf-surface  is  reckoned  no  longer  by 
square  yards,  but  by  square  roods  ? 

36 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

Our  orchards,  vineyards  and  grain-fields — why  do 
they  find  themselves  in  the  condition  they  are  to  make 
their  yearly  contributions  to  the  world's  need  but  that 
they  have  been  as  quick  to  seek  and  as  free  to  take 
as  they  are  now  ready  and  generous  to  give?  What 
have  their  restless  rootlets  been  but  so  many  busy 
fingers  spread  out  in  all  directions  to  feel  after  and 
find  whatever  the  friendly  soil  has  been  free  to  fur- 
nish? And  what  have  the  leaves  been  but  so  many 
beseeching  and  eager  palms  extended  to  welcome  the 
help  which  has  been  ofifered  them  in  the  air  and  in 
the  summer's  sunshine  and  showers?  Vines  and  trees 
are  generous  givers  only  because,  first,  they  have  faith- 
fully kept  themselves  in  constant  touch  with  their 
own  proper  sources  of  supply ;  because,  second,  they 
have  been  diligent  to  improve  this  opportunity  of  con- 
tact by  receiving  and  appropriating  the  provision 
ofifered,  and  because,  third,  they  have  been  careful  to 
enlarge  their  power  of  appropriation  to  meet  their 
continually  growing  needs. 

Why  is  it  that  some  Christians  we  see  are  branches 
clustered  always  with  spiritual  fruit,  ready  always  with 
their  cheerful  gifts  of  time,  thought,  prayer,  sympathy, 
money,  as  opportunities  arise  or  fit  occasions  are  pre- 
sented? For  the  like  three  reasons,  and  for  these  only 
— because  they  keep  themselves  by  an  unwavering 
trust  in  closest  union  with  Christ,  the  true  Vine ;  be- 
cause mind  and  heart  are  thus  kept  uninterruptedly 
open  to  receive  the  life  He  is  ever  waiting  to  impart, 
and  because  along  with  these  is  a  constantly  growing 

37 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

susceptibility   welcoming   the   larger   and   yet   larger 
gifts  of  his  inflowing  love. 

THE   PTERIGIUM    OF   PREJUDICE 

Once,  to  a  man  I  knew,  the  street  lights,  the  rail-car 
lights,  the  star-lights,  and  even  his  own  home-lights, 
began  to  grow  grotesquely  out  of  shape.  They  all 
seemed  like  comets  with  long,  fan-like  tails.  What 
was  the  trouble?  Either  something  was  wrong  with 
one  or  both  of  the  man's  eyes,  or  else  the  light-dis- 
pensers of  earth  and  sky  were  conspiring  to  vex  him' 
with  unreal  and  distorted  vision.  An  oculist  who  was 
consulted  said  that  the  distortion  was  due  to  a  pte- 
rigium;  a  thin,  translucent  membrane  which,  creeping 
slowly  over  the  ball  of  the  right  eye,  had  at  length 
reached  the  pupil,  where,  by  its  obtruding  edges,  it 
was  obscuring  and  diffracting  the  light.  Having,  al- 
though only  after  long  delay,  submitted  to  an  opera- 
tion for  its  removal,  all  objects  then  appeared  to  him 
in  their  true  shape,  size  and  proportion — no  more 
strangeness,  fault-finding  or  vexation. 

Prejudice  is  a  pterigium  of  the  mind.  He  whose 
mental  vision  is  clouded  by  it  misconceives  the  motives 
and  methods  of  his  associates  in  either  business,  politics 
or  religion;  misinterprets  the  opinions  of  others  in 
art,  science  and  letters,  and  fails  to  enjoy  the  clear, 
unrefracted  light  of  even  his  own  home.  Saddest 
of  all,  some  there  are  whose  twisting  prepossessions 
veil  from  their  sight  even  the  beauty  and  glory  of 
Him  who  alone  is  the  world's  true  Light. 

38 


THROUGH     THE     SIEVE 

A  man  who  had  long  suffered  from  a  singularly 
perverted  vision  of  this  sort  had  the  good  sense  to 
yield  to  an  operation  of  divine  surgery.  "  And  imme- 
diately," so  the  account  goes,  the  pterigium,  in  the 
form  of  "  scales,"  fell  from  his  eyes,  and  at  once,  and 
ever  thereafter,  he  saw  in  their  true  light  both  things 
and  persons  which  before  had  been  hated,  because 
they  had  been  so  grossly  misconceived. 

SIFTED 

There  is  more  in  the  gift  of  a  friend  than  the  gift. 
There  was  more  in  the  beautiful  seal  sent  to  Goethe 
a  few  months  before  his  death,  the  idea  of  which  was 
conceived  by  the  then  young  Carlyle  and  the  design 
of  which  (the  serpent  of  eternity  encircling  a  star 
with  the  legend  "  Unhasting,  Unresting")  was 
sketched  by  Mrs.  Carlyle  and  sent  by  "  Fifteen  Eng- 
lishmen " — there  was  more  in  the  seal  than  in  the  seal 
itself — "  a  memorial,"  as  the  givers  wrote,  "  of  the 
gratitude  we  owe  you  and  which  we  think  the  whole 
world  owes  you." 

There  is  more  in  the  thanks  for  such  a  gift  than 
the  thanks.  The  thanks  are  a  return  of  the  proffered 
love. 

Gifts,  however  beautiful  or  costly,  are  but  shadows 
and  like  shadows  they  pass  away.  Is  the  gift  a  gem? 
It  may  be  crushed  or  lost.  Is  it  a  more  brilliant  gem 
of  speech?  Crystallized  in  words  of  whatever  tongue, 
yet  all  tongues  shall  cease.  Is  knowledge  the  gem? 
It  shall  vanish  away.     The  love,  of  which  the  gift  is 

39 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

but  the  expression,  abides.  Sift  all  the  domestic,  social, 
commercial,  political,  educational,  religious  activities 
which  make  up  the  varied  life  of  this  our  busy  world ; 
only  so  much  of  love  to  God  and  man  as  comes  out 
of  it  all,  endures.  The  remainder  is  but  chaff,  ere 
long  to  be  blown  away  and  to  disappear. 

PRYING   UNDER 

Confidingness  of  the  open  heart  is  what  one  must 
have  who  would  receive  help  from  either  man  or  God. 
That  sort  of  prying  underneath  which  we  rightly  call 
"  suspicion "  makes  it  next  to  impossible  for  the 
would-be  giver  of  either  counsel  or  comfort  to  carry 
into  effect  the  purpose  of  his  good-will.  Little  can 
be  done  either  with  or  for  one,  the  door  of  whose 
heart  is  rendered  wellnigh  inaccessible  by  a  Cerberus 
brood  of  frowning  suspicions  and  growling  doubts. 

"  AHA  " 

That  simple-hearted  Giristian  has  much  to  learn 
who  does  not  yet  know  with  what  "  jealous  leer 
malign  "  the  devil  and  the  children  of  the  devil  eye 
him  askance  as,  all  unconscious  of  harm,  he  walks  in 
the  pleasant  garden  of  the  Lord ;  the  eagerness  with 
which  they  watch  for  his  halting,  the  secret  gladness 
with  which  they  catch  at  the  slightest  dereliction ;  and 
how,  upon  observing  it,  they  wag  their  heads  and  say, 
"  Aha,  aha,"  and  at  the  same  time  more  fondly  than 
ever  caress  their  own  impiety,  lust  or  greed. 

40 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 


CONSISTENCY    IN    WRONG 

No  greater  mistake  can  be  made  or  conceived  in 
the  ethical  sphere  than  that  of  fancying  that  by  some 
contradictory  process  of  moral,  or  rather  of  fmmoral 
alchemy,  evil  resolutely  persisted  in  becomes  good ;  in- 
justice, justice;  discourtesy,  courtesy;  wrong,  right; 
falsehood,  truth. 

Even  so  great  and  so  good  a  man  as  David  seems 
once  to  have  gotten  it  into  his  head  that  "  a  lie  well 
stuck  to  is  as  good  as  truth,"  and  that  a  wrong  well 
followed  up  ceases  after  awhile  to  be  a  wrong,  and 
is  as  good  as  the  right. 

David  had  deeply  injured  Uriah  by  the  wrong  he 
had  done  to  Bathsheba,  Uriah's  wife.  When  David 
came  to  reflect  upon  it,  two  courses  were  open  to 
him.  One  was  frankly  to  acknowledge  to  Uriah  the 
wrong  he  had  done  and  ask  his  forgiveness.  Being  a 
king  did  not  excuse  or  exempt  David  from  doing  that 
duty.  Rather,  his  higher  position  made  the  duty  more 
imperative. 

The  other  course  was  to  cover  up  his  crime,  if  he 
could,  by  neutralizing  the  evidence  of  its  existence. 
Had  David  succeeded  in  that  he  would  very  likely 
have  carried  his  injurious  treatment  of  Uriah  no  fur- 
ther. Only  the  self-denying  loyalty  of  his  faithful 
subject  foiled  the  king's  deceptive  purpose.  Under 
other  circumstances  this  manly  devotion  of  Uriah 
would  have  touched  David's  heart.  But  failing  to 
make  an  instant  retreat  from  that  false  path  he  had 

41 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

begun  to  tread,  he  is  pushed  on  by  a  fatal  consistency 
in  wrong"  to  rush  still  further  in  that  downward  path. 
So  to  adultery  and  false  pretence  of  regard  for  Uriah's 
welfare  David  now  adds  the  crime  of  murder.  He 
sends  a  secret  order  to  Joab  to  set  Uriah  in  the  fore- 
front of  the  hottest  battle,  to  make  it  as  certain  as  he 
can  that  Uriah  will  be  slain. 

David,  no  doubt,  felt  a  measure  of  relief  when  the 
tidings  was  brought  to  him.  of  the  unsuccessful  battle 
and  of  Uriah's  death.  The  last  obstacle  was  now  taken 
away  to  the  full  accomplishment  of  his  first  guilty 
purpose,  and  he  crowns  the  enormity  by  taking  Bath- 
sheba  to  be  his  wife. 

To  appearance  David  has  scored  a  great  success  in 
his  selfish,  ungrateful  crime.  But  has  he?  The  nar- 
rative closes  with  these  few  but  fearfully  significant 
words :  "  But  the  thing  that  David  had  done  dis- 
pleased the  Lord." 

One  natural  law,  at  least,  does  not  hold  good  in  the 
spiritual  world.  It  is  only  down  to  a  certain  point  that 
water  grows  more  dense  and  heavy  by  increase  of 
cold.  After  that  degree  of  temperature  has  been 
passed  and  until  freezing  begins  additions  of  cold 
cause  the  water  both  to  expand  and  to  become  lighter. 

But  never  comes  there  the  time  when  added  wrong 
does  not  lend  added  weight  to  crime  and  guilt. 

REMEMBERED   AND    FORGOTTEN 

Jesus  remembers  what  we  forget,  and  forgets  what 
we  remember.     He  forgets  our  sins,  but  remembers 

42 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

whatever  kindness  we  may  have  done  to  even  the  least 
of  His  brethren,  and  will  remind  us  of  it  when  He 
shall  come  and  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  throne  of 
His  glory. 

AN    UNSAFE   VENTURE 

Full  trust  in  God's  leadership  once  enabled  a  com- 
pany of  escaping  fugitives  to  pass  safely  through  the 
wainscoted  walls  of  a  dangerous  sea. 

When  their  pursuers  saw  how  securely  they  went 
on,  the  pursuers  *'  assayed  "  to  do  the  same.  "  Where 
these  go,  we  can  go,"  they  said ;  "  more  surely  and 
safely  even,  seeing  we  are  so  much  better  equipped. 
We  have  horses,  chariots  and  arms,  while  they  are 
unarmed  and  on  foot." 

The  pursued,  however,  had  one  more  than  counter- 
vailing advantage.  The  pillar  of  cloud  separating 
the  hosts  was  bright  only  to  the  first.  It  was  not  a 
revolving  light,  shining  equally  on  each  in  turn.  It 
was  continual  "  cloud  and  darkness  to  those,  but  it 
gave  light  by  night  to  these." 

For  the  pursuers,  therefore,  it  was  a  rash  and,  as  it 
proved,  a  fatal  experiment.  The  waters  closed  in  upon 
them  in  the  darkness  and  they  perished. 

Through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  moves 
the  guiding  pillar  of  God.  It  is  not  a  revolving  pillar. 
Only  the  front,  the  heavenward  side,  shines.  Would 
we  share  its  brightness  and  its  safety,  we  must  leave 
the  back,  dark  side  of  the  pillar,  go  forward  and  take 

43 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

our  places  among  the  trusting,  pilgrim-followers  of 
God. 

A  DISHONOR  TO  GOD'S  LOVE 

Penance  is  a  false  and  blind  substitute  for  re- 
pentance. It  is  misleading  and  mischievously  opposed 
to  the  idea  and  fact  of  that  free,  full,  immediate  and 
unrevocable  forgiveness  by  which  true  repentance  is 
invariably  followed.  This,  whether  the  penance  take 
the  form  of  wearing  coarse  clothes,  ascetic  abstinence 
from  personal  adornment,  going  barefoot,  fasting, 
flagellation,  or  singularity  of  speech,  dress  or  man- 
ners. 

When  the  self-exiled,  home-deserting  son  came  to 
consider  the  great  wrong  he  had  been  doing  and  had 
at  last  determined  to  do  the  best  he  could  to  make 
it  right  with  his  father,  and  when  he  went  back  and 
said  frankly,  "  Father,  I  know  that  I  have  been  doing 
wrong  since  I  left  you,"  what  did  the  father  say  ?  Did 
he  say,  "  My  boy,  you  had  good  clothes  on  when  you 
left  home ;  here  you  are  back  in  tatters.  Wear  your 
rags  awhile  longer  that  all  may  see  what  prodigality 
brings  a  young  man  to  in  the  long  run.  Where  is  the 
ring  I  made  you  a  present  of  at  your  last  birthday? 
I  buy  no  more  jewelry  for  the  pawn-shop.  You  went 
away  well-shod ;  you  come  home  barefoot.  It  will 
be  a  good  reminder  to  go  barefoot  awhile  longer. 
You  always  had  a  bountiful  table  to  sit  down  at  here 
at  home.  You  ran  yourself  down  and  out  until  at 
last  you  had  only  husks  to  eat  and  only  swine  for 

44 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

messmates,  and  nobody  to  care  whether  you  ever  had 
anything  better  or  not.  I  prescribe  for  a  few  weeks, 
by  way  of  probation,  a  diet  of  bread  and  water." 

Was  that  the  way  the  father  did?  For  rags,  in- 
stead, it  was  a  robe,  and  that  of  the  very  best.  For 
the  empty  hand  that  had  been  throwing  husks  to  the 
swine,  a  ring.  For  the  bare  and  bruised  feet,  shoes. 
For  fasting,  feasting ;  for  gloom,  gladness ;  for  misery, 
merriment ;  for  moans,  music  and  dancing. 

God  give  to  these  poor,  hesitant,  doubting,  fearful 
hearts  of  ours  to  see  deeper  down  than  we  have  ever 
yet  seen  into  the  unsearchable  depths  of  the  Father's 
ever-welcoming,  freely-forgiving,  guilt-removing  love. 

WELCOME   HOME 

What  the  father  would  say  or  do  to  him  in  case 
he  should  return,  the  now  penitent  son  did  not  know. 
But  that  was  not  for  the  son  to  consider.  One  thing 
he  could  do,  and  it  was  all  he  could  do.  He  could 
go  back  to  his  father's  house.  One  thing  he  could 
say,  and  it  was  all  he  could  say :  "  Father,  I  have 
sinned."  However  it  might  turn  out,  he  would  do 
his  part,  leaving  it  to  his  father  to  do  as  he  would. 

Feeling  as  he  did,  I  think  that  the  son  would  have 
come  back,  even  had  he  counted  on  being  reproved 
and  perhaps  repulsed  by  his  injured  father.  Certainly 
he  was  not  prepared  for  the  welcome  that  followed 
— the  kiss,  the  ring,  the  best  robe,  the  feast — all  to 
express  the  father's  gladness  for  his  boy's  return. 

I  think  our  Lord  has  given  us  these  words  so  that 
45 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

beyond  the  possibility  of  mistake  we  may  know  how 
true  and  strong  and  tender  our  Father's  love  is  for 
us,  and  with  what  perfect  confidence  we  may  at  all 
times  come  to  him  and  especially  in  times  of  our 
greatest  weakness  and  deepest  need. 

NO    SECOND-BIRTH    SUICIDE 

Could  we  have  known  beforehand  the  pains  and 
trials,  the  deceits  and  sins,  the  griefs  and  struggles 
of  the  world,  we  might,  had  the  choice  been  given  us 
and  the  capacity  to  exercise  it,  we  might  have  chosen 
not  to  be  born  into  it.  At  any  rate,  we  know  that 
"  Would  to  God  I  had  never  been  born,"  has  been 
many  a  misanthrope's  regret  and  many  a  suicide's 
despair. 

True,  the  world  into  which  the  second  birth  intro- 
duces us  has  its  conflicts  too,  but  here  the  successful 
struggle  is  to  rid  ourselves  of  the  sins,  dangers  and 
sorrows  of  the  state  into  which  we  were  first  bom. 
Who,  bom  from  above,  has  ever  said,  "  Oh,  that  I 
had  never  been  born  that  second  time  "  ?  Wlio  has 
ever  heard  of  a  second-birth  suicide? 

A   HIDDEN    DANGER 

Civilization  is  deceptive.  It  gives  the  world  a  fairer 
outside,  but  it  leaves  the  core  of  character  untouched. 
Your  modern  Dives  may  wear  a  finer  purple  than  the 
Dives  of  two  thousand  years  ago.  He  may  sit  at  a 
more  sumptuous  table  and  live  in  a  costlier  and  more 
elegant  mansion,  and  for  all  that  be  as  selfishly,  as 

46 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

hard-heartedly,  indifferent  to  the  distress  whose  cry 
goes  up  daily  at  his  gate.  Magnificent  rotundas, 
adorned  with  statues  and  paintings  and  surmounted 
by  sky-piercing  domes,  are  powerless  to  charm  away 
corruption  from  our  halls  of  legislation.  Mercantile 
dishonesty  is  none  the  less  hateful  because  enacted 
along  burnished  counters  and  under  electric  lights ;  las- 
civiousness,  none  the  less  loathsome  because  bedecked 
with  the  outside  respectabilities  of  wealth,  business 
distinction  or  public  eminence.  No  veneering  and 
no  varnish  that  God  does  not  pierce  through  to  the 
dry  rot  of  pride  and  unthankfulness  beneath. 

INTERCESSION   FOR  THE  ILL-DESERVING 

There  was  no  very  urgent  reason,  as  men  would 
say,  why  Abraham  should  interest  himself  particularly 
in  the  fate  of  Sodom,  or  even  of  his  nephew  who  lived 
there.  Were  not  the  people  of  Sodom  "  wicked  and 
sinners  before  the  Lord  exceedingly  "  ?  Was  not  that 
city  a  plague-spot  on  God's  fair  earth,  corrupted  and 
corrupting,  poisoned  and  poisoning,  and  would  it  not 
be  every  way  better  that  such  a  sink  of  iniquity  be 
cleansed  by  the  potent  disinfectants  of  brimstone  and 
fire?  And  as  for  Lot,  did  he  not,  in  utter  disregard 
of  what  was  due  to  the  age  and  prior  claim  of  his 
uncle,  and  taking  mean  advantage  of  his  uncle's  gen- 
erosity, did  he  not  choose  the  fertile  valley  of  the 
Jordan  for  his  own  pasture-grounds  and  deliberately 
pitch  his  tent  toward  Sodom?  And  did  he  not,  after 
that  he  had  become  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the 

47 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

pollutions  of  the  town,  did  he  not  take  his  family 
there  and  make  it  his  chosen  residence?  And  would 
it  not,  then,  have  been  a  fitting  recompense  had  his 
injured  uncle  left  him  to  shift  for  himself  as  best 
he  could  in  the  coming  overthrow? 

That  would  indeed  have  been  the  way  of  the  world 
— the  spirit  which  leads  the  man  who  has  attained 
all  of  rank,  power  and  wealth  which  he  desires,  to 
leave  his  fellows  to  struggle  alone  with  their  tempta- 
tions, hardships  and  dangers,  and  to  excuse  their  own 
neglect  by  the  heartless  old  plea,  "  Am  I  my  brother's 
keeper?  Things  must  take  their  course.  It  is  no 
more  than  right  that  he  suffer  the  consequence  of 
his  folly." 

Abraham  does  better.  His  own  affairs  are  indeed 
satisfactorily  adjusted,  his  own  interests  are  well 
looked  after,  his  own  safety  is  assured,  his  glory  as 
founder  of  a  great  nation  is  fully  guaranteed.  Still 
he  has  more  to  ask.  "  He  stands  yet  before  the  Lord." 
No  sooner  have  the  two  men  turned  their  faces  toward 
the  doomed  city  than  he  begins  that  humble,  earnest, 
importunate  intercession  which  has  ever  since  been  the 
guide  and  encouragement  of  God's  people  in  their 
supplications  for  the  worst  of  sinners. 

SAVED 

Never,  since  the  world  began,  were  there  so  many 
ways  of  pleasing,  diverting  and  cultivating  men  as 
there  are  now.  But,  alas,  for  the  hopes  of  mere  human- 
itarians, God  does  not  say,  "  Look  unto  me  and  be 

48 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

ye  diverted,  pleased  and  entertained  " ;  nor  yet,  "  Look 
unto  me  and  be  ye  cultured,  polished  and  refined,"  but, 
"  Look  unto  me  and  be  ye  saved."  He  does  not  say, 
"  You  are  unfortunate,  go  to  your  friends  and  be 
pitied ;  you  are  ill-informed,  go  to  books,  lectures  and 
teachers  and  be  enlightened ;  you  are  tempted,  con- 
sider the  ruined  and  be  admonished ;  you  are  fearful, 
lose  yourself  in  business  and  forget ;  you  are  afflicted, 
consider  that  it  is  the  common  lot  of  all  and  be  con- 
soled." Above,  and  deeper  than  all  this,  and  as  the 
root  from  which  all  true  comfort  in  affliction  must 
come ;  out  of  which  all  spiritual  enlightenment,  all 
complete  victory  over  temptation,  all  true,  abiding 
peace  must  arise,  "  You  are  lost — look  unto  Me  and 
be  saved." 

CREATED    TO    GOOD   WORKS 

By  no  possible  strenuousness  of  endeavor  could 
primeval  chaos  and  night  ever  have  worked  themselves 
over  and  up  into  such  a  world  as  this  which  we  see ; 
a  world  of  order,  beauty  and  life.  Much  less  could 
souls,  darkened  and  disordered  by  sin,  by  however  in- 
tense or  prolonged  a  struggle,  develop  a  spiritual 
cosmos  of  light  and  life  from  themselves.  '*  Let  there 
be  light :  let  there  be  life,"  must  first  be  spoken  from 
above. 

As  our  first  and  natural  birth  is  our  first,  our  nat- 
ural beginning,  so  is  our  second,  our  spiritual  birth, 
our  first  and  new  spiritual  beginning.  And  just  as 
it  is  not  the  infant's  travail,  but  the  mother's,  that 

49 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

brings  the  infant  to  its  birth,  so  is  it  not  by  their  own, 
but  by  the  travail  of  Qirist's  "  soul "  that  those  are 
born  who  are  born  again. 

Whatever  "  good  works  "  we  do,  therefore,  we  do 
because  we  ourselves  are  "  God's  workmanship  " ;  be- 
cause we  are  "  created  "  to  do  them — the  works  "  or- 
dained of  God,  that  we  should  walk  in  them." 

Hence, 

"  Kindle  a  flame  of  sacred  love 
In  these  cold  hearts  of  ours," 

is  the  true  order ;  and  hence,  again,  the  hopeless  mis- 
take of  those  who  say : 

"  We,  first,  will  kindle  love  divine. 
And  that,  O  Lord,  shall  kindle  thine." 

GROWING   NOT   TO    GRACE,    BUT    IN    IT 

"  Grace "  is  free  giving.  Not  only  the  free  for- 
giving of  sins,  but  the  free  giving  of  spiritual  life. 
And  since  life  precedes  and  is  an  essential  condition 
of  growth,  we  are  not  bidden,  as  though  we  were 
not  living,  to  grow  toward  and  at  length,  perhaps, 
TO  "  grace  and  the  knowledge  of  Christ " ;  but  as 
those  who  have  been  "  quickened  "  to  this  freely  given 
spiritual  life,  to  grow  there-"  IN." 

SOMETHING   TO    EAT 

A  child  of  twelve  years  lay  dead  in  her  father's 
house.  Jesus  having  come.  He  "  commands  that  some- 
thing be  given  her  to  eat." 

50 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

But  when  does  He  command  this?  Not  until  that 
other  word  of  command,  "  Damsel,  I  say  unto  thee, 
Arise,"  has  restored  supernaturally  to  the  child's  body 
its  natural  but  death-interrupted  power  of  nutrition. 
It  were  but  mockery  to  offer  to  the  dead  anything 
in  the  way  of  food,  however  lovingly  or  skilfully  it 
may  have  been  prepared,  no  way  having  yet  been  de- 
vised or  discovered  by  which  the  dead  may  eat  their 
way  back  to  life. 

CLIMBING 

Trying  to  reach  heaven  by  mere  stress  of  moral 
endeavor  is  very  much  like  a  "  continuous  perform- 
ance "  at  climbing  a  rope.  The  climber  is  all  the  time 
either  climbing  or  holding  on.  No  wonder  the  strong- 
est man  should  tire  of  doing  that.  He  must  perforce 
stop  climbing  now  and  then  and  rest — a  most  unsatis- 
factory rest,  since  it  is  almost  as  hard  to  hold  on  as  it 
is  to  climb. 

Faith  is  neither  climbing  nor  holding  on.  It  is  not 
even  holding  on  to  Christ.  It  is  dropping  into  Christ's 
arms  and  letting  Christ  hold  me.  I  do  not  forget 
the  beautiful  picture  of  the  female  figure  clinging  to 
a  cross  set  on  a  rock  in  mid-ocean,  nor  the  legend 
accompanying  it,  "  Teneo  et  Teneor  "  (I  hold  and 
am  held).  The  order,  however,  is  a  mistaken  one. 
The  motto  should  read,  "Teneor  et  Teneo "  (I  am 
held  and  I  hold). 


SI 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

THE    SPIDER'S    FOOT    FOR    THE    SPIDER'S 
WEB 

While  its  web  means  swift  and  safe  transit  for  the 
spider,  it  bodes  only  hindrance  and  peril  for  the  fly. 
The  fly  does,  indeed,  seem  for  a  time  to  be  the  more 
active  of  the  two,  but  the  activity  is  of  a  wholly  dif- 
ferent sort.  For  while  the  fly  struggles,  the  spider 
glides. 

Stretched  between  earth  and  heaven  is  the  wide 
web  of  our  human  life ;  a  web  intricately  woven  with 
the  interlacing  threads  of  duty  and  devotion,  of  trial 
and  temptation.  In  the  meshes  of  this  web  the  clumsy 
foot  of  self-righteousness  becomes  discouragingly  and 
hopelessly  entangled,  while  for  the  nimble  arachnoid 
foot  of  faith  it  serves  as  a  smooth  track  on  which  the 
steadfast  believer  glides  safely  to  heaven, 

THE  ONE  THING  THAT  COUNTS 

What  is  there  a  thoughtful  man  would  not  do, 
so  the  doing  of  it  would  ensure  his  being  dealt  with 
by  God  as  one  absolutely  free  from  guilt?  Will 
praying,  fasting,  weeping  count  for  this?  Then  he 
will  pray,  fast  and  weep.  Will  money  offerings 
count,  whether  for  the  poor  or  for  the  support  and 
spread  of  the  Gospel?  For  the  furtherance  of  these 
or  kindred  objects  he  will,  if  need  be,  "  bestow  all  his 
goods."  Will  a  constant  and  careful  study  of  the 
Scriptures  count  ?    To  that  task  he  will  most  earnestly 

52 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

address  himself ;  will,  if  necessary,  get  the  entire  Bible 
by  heart.  Will  regular  and  punctual  attendance  on 
church  services  count ;  taking  the  "Endeavorers' " 
pledge;  the  doing  of  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work;  exhorting, 
preaching,  offering  himself  for  missionary  work  at 
home  or  abroad?  Whatever  of  all  this  he  has  reason 
to  think  would  improve  his  chances  of  winning  pardon 
and  eternal  life,  that  he  will  be  forward  to  do. 

Yet  he  may  do  all  of  this  and  still  fail  of  eternal 
life.    He  may  do  nothing  of  it  and  yet  be  saved. 

On  the  inside  walls  of  any  and  every  Christian 
church  the  things  named  above  might,  as  mottoes,  be 
most  appropriately  inscribed :  as,  "  Pray  without 
ceasing  " ;  "  And  thou,  when  thou  fastest  " ;  *'  Night 
and  day  with  tears  "  ;  "  To  communicate  forget  not  " ; 
"  Forget  not  the  assembling  of  yourselves  together  " ; 
"  Do  good  unto  all  men " ;  "  Preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature." 

Were  I,  however,  asked  to  suggest  a  motto  suitable 
to  be  inscribed  over  the  entrance-portal  of  every 
Christian  church,  it  would  be  this :  ''  To  him  that 
worketh  not,  but  believeth  on  Him  who  justifieth  the 
ungodly,  his  helieving  is  counted  for  righteousness." 

College  catalogues  distinguish  carefully  between  the 
terms  of  admission  and  the  work  to  be  done  by  the 
candidate  after  matriculation.  In  the  divinely  author- 
ized and  perennial  catalogue  of  the  Christian  church 
the  sole  and  invariable  condition  set  down  for  admis- 
sion is  this  simple  trust  in  Him  who  was  "  delivered 
for  our  offences  and  raised  again  for  our  justification." 

53 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

NOT   "IT,"    BUT   "I" 

Had  God  undertaken  to  give  to  the  world  a  knowl- 
edge of  any  natural  science,  He  would  have  given  it 
with  such  clearness  and  fulness  as  to  make  any  dif- 
fering or  opposing  declaration  irreverent  presumption. 
No  twentieth  century  electrician  could  make  an  hon- 
orable reputation  for  himself  by  attempting  to  dis- 
prove or  alter  any  statement  which  God  might  have 
chosen,  however  long  ago,  to  make  regarding  elec- 
tricity. 

Of  ethical  principles  and  practices  it  did  please  God 
to  give  to  the  world  just  such  a  clear,  concise  and 
complete  statement;  not  on  parchment,  to  decay,  but 
on  stone,  to  endure;  not  tentative,  but  final,  since  it 
is  significantly  said,  "  And  He  added  no  more."  The 
age  in  which  Jesus  lived,  although  in  other  respects 
far  more  enlightened  than  was  the  age  of  Moses,  had 
not,  nevertheless,  outgrown  that  two-articled  code  of 
supreme  love  to  God  and  equal  love  to  our  neighbor. 
Moses  was  still  good  enough  Sabbath-day  reading 
for  the  synagogues,  built  more  than  three  thousand 
years  after  that  twofold  formula  was  given ;  and  so 
far  as  mere  ethical  instruction  is  concerned,  he  is 
good  enough  either  Sabbath-day  or  week-day  read- 
ing for  synagogue,  church,  cathedral,  class-room  or 
closet  to-day.  The  Two  Tables  were  but  the  pattern 
of  the  eternal  legislation  brought  down  from  heaven 
and  showed  to  Moses  in  the  Mount.  A  complete 
angelic  and  archangelic  bible,  they  would  serve  as  a 

54 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

complete  human  bible,  as  well,  did  men,  like  angels, 
live  fully  up  to  its  requirements.  Any  perfect  man's 
bible,  if  such  perfect  man  there  be,  is  a  bible  of  but 
fifteen  verses;  epitomized,  of  but  a  single  verse. 

"  If  such  there  be  " ;  but  what  for  such  of  us  as 
are  not  perfect,  and  have  grown  weary  of  trying  to 
be  so? 

A  knowledge  of  anatomy  and  hygiene  answers  very 
well  for  the  man  who  breaks  no  bones  and  is  never 
sick.  But  for  the  man  who  is  not  "  whole,"  anatomy 
and  hygiene  are  no  longer  the  "  way."  For  them  the 
physician  is  the  way.  What  a  sick  man  needs  is  not 
a  rule,  but  a  person — not  the  laws  of  health,  how- 
ever perfect,  but  one  who  shall  come  to  save  him  from 
the  consequences  of  having  broken  them.  Hence 
Jesus  never  said,  "  It,"  but  always  "  I."  "  I  am  the 
way."  Not,  "Go  to  it  "—the  law— but  "Come,  ye 
weary,  unto  Me." 

THE   ONE   TEMPTATION 

Christians  have,  comprehensively,  but  one  tempta- 
tion to  resist  and  overcome.  Jesus  had  but  one — the 
temptation  to  put  some  other  thing  or  things  before 
love.  "  See,"  said  Satan,  "  what  a  noise  you  will 
make  in  the  world  if  by  a  word  you  turn  these  stones 
into  bread ;  what  a  greater  noise  still  if  you  leap  from 
this  temple-top  and  are  caught  in  mid-air  by  rescuing 
angels ;  and  greatest  of  all  if  you  become,  what  I  will 
make  you,  possessor  and  sole  monarch  of  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  world." 

55 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

"  No,"  answers  Jesus ;  "  on  no  such  showily-am- 
bitious errand  have  I  come.  Miracles,  indeed,  I  shall 
work;  miracles,  too,  far  greater  than  turning  stones 
into  bread,  or  than  that  of  being  caught  and  upborne 
by  the  hands  of  descending  angels,  or  even  of  com- 
manding in  a  moment  of  time  the  submissive  homage 
of  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth.  Hearts  of  flint  I 
will  turn  into  hearts  of  flesh.  Angels  will  attend  Me, 
but  it  will  not  be  as  the  imposing  retinue  of  an  earthly 
king,  but  only  that  they  may  minister  to  the  weak- 
ness, pain  and  sorrow  incident  to  the  working  out  of 
my  consuming  purpose  of  love  in  the  world's  redemp- 
tion. A  crown  of  dominion  I  shall  wear,  but  of  do- 
minion exercised  in  furtherance  of  love's  most  loving 
behests." 

The  ambition  of  the  prince  of  this  world  is  to  out- 
hoard,  to  out-do,  and  to  out-shine;  and  in  order  to 
do  this,  to  out-manoeuvre  and  out-wit;  if  need  be,  to 
out-fight  and  out-kill.  The  ambition  of  Jesus,  the 
Prince  of  Peace,  is  to  out-love,  to  out-give,  to  out- 
bless,  and  to  out-save.  He  is  the  world's  Saviour  in 
that  He  stands  unwaveringly,  unfalteringly  and  fully 
for  this.  So  far  as  His  professed  followers  stand 
uncompromisingly  for  this,  are  they  recognized  as 
such  by  the  world.  "  By  this,"  said  the  Master,  "  shall 
all  men  know."  He  saves  His  people  from  all  their 
sins  by  saving  them  from  this  one  generic,  all-inclu- 
sive sin  and  mistake  of  putting  this,  that  or  the  other 
thing  or  things  before  love.  No,  not  business  for 
business'  sake,  or  money  for  money's  sake,  art  for 

56 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

art's  sake,  learning  for  learning's  sake,  or  dominion 
for  dominion's  sake ;  but  business,  riches,  art,  educa- 
tion, power  or  position ;  yes,  the  more  of  them  the 
better,  so  they  are  gained,  held  and  used  as  minister- 
ing hand-maids  of  grateful,  responsive,  out-going  and 
out-giving  love. 

Heaven  is  as  full  of  love  as  it  can  hold.  We  are 
here  a  good  way  from  that  as  yet.  But  we  are  com- 
ing to  it,  however  slowly.  We  know  that  we  shall 
come  to  it  wholly  one  of  these  days,  and  that  our 
Lord's  prayer,  and  our.  His  people's  prayer,  will 
surely  be  fulfilled,  "  On  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven." 

QUITTING   HIS    OBSERVATORY 

His  observatory  is  not  the  astronomer's  home.  He 
is  interested,  is  absorbed  for  a  time  in  his  transit,  his 
equatorial,  his  meridional  circle,  spectroscope,  astro- 
nomical clock,  and  other  instruments.  He  spends  the 
whole  night  with  them,  it  may  be.  When  the  day 
dawns  he  is  glad  to  quit  the  dome  for  his  home,  the 
stars  for  the  sun,  silent  contemplation  of  the  heav- 
ens for  the  companionship  of  wife,  children  and 
friends. 

The  eye  is  but  a  telescope.  We  use  it  for  noting 
what  is  going  on  in  the  world  about  us.  The  body  is 
the  observatory  in  which  it  is  mounted  for  convenience 
of  observation.  We  use  it  during  the  starlight  of  our 
stay  on  the  earth.  When  the  clear  day  of  heaven 
dawns,  we  are  glad  to  leave  instrument  and  observa- 

57 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

tory  behind  us  and  to  join  our  friends  in  that  home 
which  has  no  need  of  sun,  moon  or  stars  to  lighten 
it — that  city  whose  gates  are  not  shut  at  all  by  day, 
and  where  there  is  no  night. 


58 


Ill 


A   NEW   CHIME   OF   OLD   BELLS 

Going  to  service  one  Sunday  morning,  I  was  seized 
with  a  pleasurable  surprise  as  all  of  a  sudden  the  city 
bells  rang  out  with  the  accord  of  their  joyous  tones. 
Subdued  and  blended  by  the  intervening  hillside,  some 
notes  as  of  a  familiar  church-tune  came  to  my  ear. 
Is  it  the  "  Reformed  "  or  "  Trinity,"  I  at  once  asked 
myself,  that  has  so  quietly  during  the  past  week  put 
a  new  chime  into  its  old  bell-tower?  Listening  more 
intently  I  soon  distinguished  the  sounds  of  the  in- 
dividual bells  of  the  different  churches.  My  next 
thought  was,  What,  after  all,  if  the  bells  of  adjacent 
churches  were  really  tuned  in  groups  and  rung  as  a 
chime?  Some  by  preconcerted  arrangement  pealing 
forth  notes  for  the  line,  "  How  pleased  and  blest  was 
I  " ;  others  taking  up  the  refrain,  "  To  hear  the  peo- 
ple cry  " ;  and  others  following  with,  "  Come,  let  us 
seek  our  God  to-day."  Such  a  united  call  from  all 
the  churches,  what  a  delightful  sense  would  it  give 
of  the  oneness  of  all  Christians  in  worship  if  not  in 
creed ! 

NEIGHBORLINESS    NEXT    TO    GODLINESS 

Wholly  taken  up  with  the  decent  semblance  of  re- 
ligion,   formalism    ignores   morality.     Fancying  that 

59 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

God  is  pleased  with  the  shows  of  outward  worship, 
the  over-devout  formahst  feels  himself  at  liberty  to 
treat  his  fellow-men  with  a  rudeness  or  injustice 
which  upright,  though  perhaps  prayerless  persons 
would  scorn  to  commit.  Hence  that  unseemly  yok- 
ing together  of  strenuous  piety  with  sickening  de- 
pravity which  our  Lord  so  aptly  describes  as  "  strain- 
ing out  a  gnat  and  swallowing  a  camel." 

The  men  thus  satirized  by  Christ  were  a  set  of  re- 
ligionists who  maintained  that  a  man  might  keep  the 
first  table  of  the  law  so  punctiliously  that  he  need  not 
keep  the  second  table  at  all ;  might  serve  God  so  de- 
voutly that  he  could  without  blame  hate  men  as  cor- 
dially as  he  pleased ;  who  imagined  that  they  could 
so  hoodwink  God  by  bribes  and  flattery  that  He 
would  care  little  whether  or  how  much  they  abused 
their  neighbors.  Making  the  law  of  no  effect  through 
their  traditional  glosses  and  false  interpretations, 
where  their  lives  did  not  fit  God's  pattern  they 
changed  the  pattern  to  fit  their  lives — strangling  the 
law  under  show  of  embracing  it. 

In  strongest  opposition  to  these  Pharisaic  notions 
the  Bible  everywhere  puts  morality  before  what  is 
generally  termed  piety;  doing  right  before  praying; 
duty  to  our  fellow-men  before  direct  duties  to  God. 
Even  in  the  Old  Testament  God  made  it  to  be  clearly 
understood  that  He  cares  nothing  for  religious  forms 
in  themselves.  "  I  have,"  He  says,  "  forms  and  offer- 
ings enough  of  my  own,  if  that  were  what  I  wanted. 
The  beasts  of  the  forest  are  mine,  and  the  cattle  on 

60 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

a  thousand  hills.  If  I  were  hungry  I  would  not  tell 
thee.  .  .  .  Offer  unto  the  Lord  the  sacrifices  of 
righteousness."  "  Seek  judgment,  relieve  the  op- 
pressed, judge  the  fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow." 
"  Make  all  right  with  your  fellow-men,  and  after  that 
I  will  make  all  right  with  you." 

In  the  New  Testament  the  teaching  is  the  same ; 
only  if  possible  more  full  and  emphatic.  It  was  by 
such  preaching  that  John  prepared  the  people  to  re- 
ceive Christ.  When  told  of  Christ's  coming  and  how 
important  it  was  that  they  should  be  ready  to  receive 
Him,  the  people  "  asked  Him  saying,  What  shall  we 
do  then  ?  " 

"  He  that  hath  two  coats  let  him  impart  to  him  that 
hath  none ;  and  he  that  hath  meat  let  him  do  likewise." 

"  Then  came  also  publicans  to  be  baptized  and  said 
to  Him,  Master,  what  shall  we  do  ?  " 

"  Exact  no  more  than  that  which  is  appointed  you." 

"  And  the  soldiers  likewise  demanded  of  Him,  say- 
ing. And  what  shall  we  do  ?  " 

"  Do  violence  to  no  man,  neither  accuse  any  falsely ; 
and  be  content  with  your  wages." 

Thus  was  a  pure  and  honorable  morality  the  trumpet 
by  which  the  coming  of  Jesus  was  heralded  to  the 
world. 

AN  UNWELCOME  GIFT 

Our  Lord  taught  nothing  more  pointedly  than  that 
unneighborly  acts  are  a  complete  bar  to  acceptable 
worship. 

6i 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

"  First,  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother."  You  have 
come  bringing  a  gift  to  the  altar  of  worship ;  to  render 
praise,  offer  thanksgiving,  seek  forgiveness  for  your 
sins,  drop  money  into  the  Lord's  treasury.  Before 
bending  your  knees  in  adoration,  singing  your  hymn 
or  making  your  contribution,  you  think  of  some  un- 
righted  wrong  done  to  a  neighbor — unpaid  debt,  un- 
fair bargain,  rude  discourtesy,  tale-bearing,  kindness 
repaid  by  neglect,  pretext  of  injury  received  when  you 
were  yourself  the  injurer.  What  Jesus  would  have 
the  very  first  sight  of  His  altar  do  for  you,  the  intend- 
ing worshipper,  is  to  quicken  remembrance  of  wrongs 
which  it  has  hitherto  been  convenient  for  you  to  for- 
get. What  would  He  have  you  do?  Go  on  with  your 
worship?  No ;  "  Leave  there  thy  gift  before  the  altar." 
Leave  it  before  the  altar,  but  do  not  put  it  on  the  altar. 
It  is  a  defiled  gift,  and  will  not  be  accepted.  Let 
the  prayer  go  unsaid,  the  psalm  go  unsung,  the  money 
stay  awhile  in  thy  purse.  You  have  come  to  make 
your  acknowledgments  to  God ;  but  there  are  other 
acknowledgments  which  are  more  important  just  now, 
and  which  He  says  you  must  make  first  or  He  will  not 
accept  those  made  to  Himself.  First,  be  reconciled 
to  thy  brother.  God  wants  the  first  table  of  the 
law  kept,  but  not  at  the  expense  of  the  second. 
He  would  not  suffer  broken  tables  to  be  put  into 
His  ark  nor  to  be  brought  into  His  sanctuary. 
Whole  tables  must  be  brought  in  or  none.  What 
is  technically  called  "  religion " ;  prayer,  thanksgiv- 
ing,  confession,   are   good ;   but   they   are  not  good, 

62 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

they  are  worse  than  useless  if  disjoined  from  a 
high-toned,  right-minded,  honorable  treatment  of  our 
fellow-men.  Unless  wrong  done  to  our  neighbor  be 
righted,  devotion  of  whatever  kind  is  of  absolutely  no 
account  whatever  in  the  sight  of  God.  That  wronged 
brother  is  also  a  child  of  God ;  and  would  you  as  a 
father  smile  on  the  man  who  has  done  some  grievous 
wrong  to  your  child  and  who  leaves  the  wrong  un- 
acknowledged? What  would  that  be  but  to  wink  at 
the  indignity  and  outrage? 

It  may  be  that  some  who  are  not  Christians  are  say- 
ing to  themselves,  "  That  is  what  I  like ;  that  is  a 
comfort  to  me."  I  am  glad  if  you  like  it  and  glad  if 
it  is  a  comfort  to  you;  although  I  did  not  say  it  for 
that,  but  because  it  is  true.  It  is  a  comfort  to  any 
man  that  he  is  not  mean,  selfish,  or  underhanded  in 
his  treatment  of  his  fellows.  It  is  a  comfort  to  be 
tenderly,  honestly,  nobly  mindful  of  the  rights,  good 
name,  prosperity,  and  happiness  of  one's  neighbors. 
And  there  are  men  out  of  the  church  as  well  as 
in  the  church  who  have  this  stamp  of  nobility  and 
honor. 

We  say  to  such  men.  You  are  on  the  right  road ;  but 
you  have  by  no  means  completed  your  journey.  You 
need  to  be  devout  towards  God  as  well  as  upright  to- 
wards men. 

To  the  offender  against  morality  Jesus  does  indeed 
say,  "  Put  not  thy  gift  on  the  altar."  He  does  not  say, 
"  Take  away  from  the  altar  thy  gift."  "  Leave  there 
thy  gift  before  the  altar  and  go  thy  way.     First,  be 

•  62 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

reconciled  to  thy  brother " ;  but  there  is  a  second ; 
"  Then  come  and  offer  thy  gift." 

This  explains  in  what  sense  morality  is  more  im- 
portant than  piety.  Here  is  an  old  stubble  field,  and 
I  would  sow  it  to  wheat.  Which  is  more  important  to  be 
done  first,  sowing  or  plowing?  Plowing  certainly, 
since  without  that  the  sowing  would  be  labor  lost. 
But  I  do  not  stop  with  the  plowing.  So  Jesus  says 
we  must  not  stop  with  the  strictest  morality.  If  every- 
thing is  right  in  the  home,  in  the  office,  shop  and  store, 
in  society,  then  I  may  go  to  Christ  about  my  personal 
relations  with  Him.  From  the  altar  thus  revisited  I 
shall  bear  away  the  inward  consolation  of  an  accepted 
gift. 

A    FOOTPATH    VENTURE 

"  Good  evening,"  I  said  to  a  gentleman  whom  I 
overtook,  a  little  ago,  as  I  was  returning  from  our 
mid-week  evening  prayer-meeting. 

"  We  are  strangers,"  I  continued,  "  but  after  all, 
we  are  neighbors  in  a  way,  and  if  you  don't  mind,  I 
would  like  to  tell  you  of  a  new  thought  that  has  just 
come  to  me." 

This  was  quite  unconventional,  of  course.  I  knew 
also  that  it  was  a  venture,  and  that  the  familiarity  of 
my  address  might  be  resented  as  an  impertinent  in- 
trusion. 

The  stranger's  prompt  reply,  "  Certainly.  I  would 
be  glad  to  hear  it,"  proved  my  warrant  for  having 
taken  the  risk. 

64 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

"  Well,"  I  said,  "  you  know  how  much  is  being  said 
nowadays  about  '  success '  in  lectures,  magazines, 
newspapers  and  books.  '  What  is  "  success  "  ?  '  I  have 
been  asking  myself;  and  I  have  come  to  define  it  as 
'  The  doing  of  that  which  I  set  out  to  do.'  If  I  do 
what  I  set  out  to  do,  I  succeed.  All  depends,  then,  on 
what  I  set  out  to  do.  Should  I  set  out  to  fly  to  the 
moon,  or  to  become  a  multi-millionaire,  President  of 
the  United  States,  or  a  super-Shakespearian  poet,  I 
should  be  in  the  one  case  so  sure,  and  in  the  others 
so  likely,  to  fail,  that  it  would  be  wiser  for  me  not  to 
try.  Should  I  set  out  to  out-gain,  to  out-build,  out- 
furnish,  out-speed,  out-dress,  out-bejewel,  or,  in  any 
other  way,  outshine  some  envied  and  emulated  society- 
star,  possibly  I  might  make  it  out,  but  the  chances 
would  be  so  much  against  me  that  it  were  safer  to  at- 
tempt something  more  promising  of  success. 

"  My  new  thought  is,  that  there  is  a  kind  of  suc- 
cess which  every  one  who  cares  for  it  may  have.  It  is 
this. 

"  Everywhere  are  persons  in  need  of  help — poverty 
to  be  relieved,  sorrow  to  be  comforted,  despondency  to 
be  cheered,  faint-heartedness  to  be  encouraged,  doubts 
to  be  cleared,  faltering  and  uncertain  steps  to  be  led, 
loneliness  longing  for  heart-felt  companionship.  Of 
such  are  always  those  who  will  gratefully  accept  of- 
fered assistance.  If,  then,  what  I  set  out  to  do  is  to 
render  such  relief,  I  am  bound  to  succeed — a  most 
true,  worthy,  and  heart-satisfying  success." 

Possibly,  the  most  which  I  had  any  right  to  expect 
65 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

in  the  way  of  rejoinder  would  have  been  a  poHte 
stranger's  quiet  tolerance  of  a  perhaps  ill-timed  and 
ill-placed  homily.  Instead  of  that  came  at  once  this 
genial  response. 

"  I  agree  with  you,  in  both  principle  and  practice. 
I  am  myself  one  of  a  Society  to  relieve  the  poor  of 
the  city  of  Boston.  We  do  it  by  family  visitation. 
We  have  divided  the  city  into  sections.  My  section 
contains  15,000  inhabitants.  My  work  is  to  find  out 
those  in  my  district  who  are  in  need  and  to  relieve 
them.  We  make  no  distinction  as  to  race  or  creed." 
A  grand  success,  certainly. 

Two  practical  applications, 

1.  Running  the  risk  of  an  unsocial  repulse  may 
issue  in  the  happy  discovery  of  a  wholly  unlooked-for 
nobility  of  character. 

2.  While  priding  ourselves  on  having  formulated 
what  we  are  supposing  to  be  a  new  original  theory  of 
life,  likely  as  not  we  may  encounter  those;  not  only 

"  Whose  faith,  through  form,  is  pure  as  ours  " ; 

but  more  than  that,  those 

"  Whose  hands  are  quicker  unto  good." 

WEANED 

The  mother  perseveres  in  weaning  her  child,  be- 
cause she  knows  what  the  child  does  not  know,  that 
it  is  for  the  child's  best  good.     In  her  secret  wisdom 

66 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

she  appeals  from  the  infant  callow  to  the  infant 
fledged.  The  crying,  the  struggling,  the  clamorous 
insisting  would,  she  is  sure,  cease  at  once,  could  the 
rebellious  little  one  only  be  made  to  understand  to  what 
as  well  as  from  what  it  is  being  weaned — from  one 
single  and  confined  source  and  way  of  satisfying  its 
hunger  to  the  numberless  and  diversified  sources  and 
ways  which  love  will  provide  for  the  increasing  de- 
mands of  its  appetite  and  growth.  She  foresees,  too, 
how  thankfully  the  now  insubmissive  nursling  will,  in 
due  time,  approve  the  kind  compulsion  which  breaks  it 
off  from  the  old  ways  and  starts  it  upon  the  new. 

So  far  as  true  learning  has  outgrown  its  babyhood, 
it  has  come  about  only  through  a  long  succession  of 
enforced  and  reluctantly  accepted  weanings.  With 
what  infantile  pertinacity  have  philosophers  and 
physicists,  pedagogues  and  politicians,  dogmatists  and 
doctrinaires  clung  to  their  prematurely-formed  and 
ambitiously-announced  speculations — whole  centuries 
of  weaning  taken  up  in  the  making  of  an  astronomer 
out  of  an  astrologer,  of  a  chemist  out  of  an  alchemist, 
of  a  statesman  out  of  a  politician ;  out  of  a  translator 
a  reviser,  and  out  of  a  religious  dogmatist  a  true  theo- 
logian ! 

After  all,  what  in  its  deepest  import  is  all  this 
weaning  but  a  sensible  giving  up  of  that  pride  of 
reason  which  boasts  itself  equal  to  the  quick  fathom- 
ing of  "  all  mysteries  and  all  knowledge  "  in  exchange 
for  that  humility  which  acknowledges  the  bounds 
which  nature  has  set  to  the  triumphs  of  the  human 

67 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

understanding;  for  that  modesty  which  led  Newton 
to  compare  himself  to  the  little  child  picking  up  a 
pebble  here  and  there,  on  the  shore  of  the  vast  ocean 
of  truth ;  which  brings  a  highly-honored  chemist  to 
confess  that  an  eighty  years'  siege  by  Prout's  hypoth- 
esis has  thus  far  failed  to  capture  the  "  citadel  of  the 
atom  " ;  which  has  caused  many  an  abashed  Temanite, 
Shuhite  and  Naamathite  to  give  up  trying  to  solve 
the  time-old  problems  of  the  origin  of  evil,  the  pros- 
perity of  the  wicked  and  the  afflictions  of  the  right- 
eous; which  voices  the  meek  surrender  of  the  once 
proud  but  now  submissive  Psalmist :  "  Lord,  my  heart 
is  not  haughty  nor  mine  eyes  lofty:  neither  do  I  ex- 
ercise myself  in  great  matters,  or  in  things  too  high 
for  me.  Surely  I  have  behaved  and  quieted  myself  as 
a  child  that  is  weaned  of  his  mother :  my  soul  is  even 
as  a  weaned  child." 

TWO    SUMMERS 

Looking  out  in  the  dead  of  winter  over  his  snow- 
imprisoned  acres,  the  farmer  (but  that  he  has  been 
otherwise  instructed  by  experience)  might  exclaim 
despairingly,  "  What  can  I  do  to  be  saved  from 
threatened  hunger  and  starvation?  To  melt  this  for- 
bidding mass  of  snow  and  ice  is  beyond  my  most 
earnest  and  toilsome  endeavor.  Were  I  even  to  cut 
and  burn  a  hundred  forests,  the  mighty  hecatomb 
would  not  suffice  to  warm  the  soil  or  quicken  the  seed 
or  ripen  the  harvest  on  a  single  field." 

68 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

True.  But  coming  already  on  its  way  is  the  sum- 
mer ;  God's  loving  offer  of  help  to  His  children  in  their 
mortal  need,  and  ready,  otherwise,  to  perish. 

His  offer  accepted,  on  what  a  scene  of  rejoicing 
activity  does  the  Father  look  complacently  down — a 
million  plows  turning  the  soil  on  hillsides  and  in 
valleys,  by  great  rivers  and  on  boundless  prairies ;  har- 
vests shouted  home  by  myriads  of  exultant  reapers; 
happy  households  gathered  around  bountifully  spread 
tables ;  the  great  globe's  teeming  population  kept  alive 
and  saved. 

What  of  the  unspeakably  greater  good  to  be  secured 
for  the  soul?  How  supply  its  famishing  hunger  with 
the  bread  of  life? 

"  Looking  at  my  heart  and  life,"  says  one,  "  I  be- 
hold a  scene  more  wild  and  desolate  than  snow- 
wrapped  fields ;  more  despairingly  enchained  by  more 
than  Arctic  frosts  of  pride,  covetousness,  envy,  worldly 
ambition,  self-righteousness  and  unbelief.  Though 
art,  taste,  refinement  and  philosophy  were  to  kindle  all 
their  fires  and  compass  me  with  all  their  brilliant  and 
crackling  flames,  they  could  not  thaw  the  icy  impeni- 
tence of  my  soul ;  could  not  cause  to  spring  one  holy 
desire  or  ripen  one  holy  act." 

True,  again.  But  if  God  give  one  summer  for  the 
life  of  the  body,  "  how  much  more  "  will  He  give  an- 
other for  the  life  of  the  soul ! 

Shall  I  be  forever  deploring,  then,  as  though  it  were 
a  just  cause  or  excuse  for  despondency,  that  unless 
some  all-powerful  Friend   undertake   for   me,   I   can 

69 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

never   repent,   believe,   and   love   unto   salvation   and 
eternal  life? 

From  all  such  deprecatory  and  despairing  negatives 
God's  full  provision  and  loving  promise  bid  me  wholly 
and  at  once  to  break  away;  bid  me  leap,  rather,  to 
say  with  most  grateful  though  most  humble  positive- 
ness,  "  Without  Christ  I  could  indeed  do  nothing,  but 
such  is  not  my  case.  I  have  Christ  and  with  Him  I 
can  do  all  things." 

PERFECT   AT   LAST 

The  schoolboy's  crooked  up-and-down  strokes  on 
the  first  page  of  his  copy-book  are  to  the  onlooker  an 
almost  ludicrous  contrast  to  the  finely  engraved  model 
above ;  a  discouraging  contrast,  no  doubt,  to  the  pupil 
himself.  The  last  line  on  the  page  shows  a  noticeable, 
perhaps,  but  still  very  distant  approach  to  the  perfect 
strokes  at  the  top.  Yet  through  each  successive  page 
the  improvement  continues  until  at  the  end  of  the 
many-leaved  book  is  a  line  of  which  the  pleased  and 
patient  master  is  pleased  to  say,  "  That,  my  boy,  is  as 
well  done  as  I  could  have  done  it  myself." 

"  Perfect  as  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  per- 
fect "  is  no  mere  tantalizing  theory,  no  impossible 
command.  There  have  been  heart-heroes  who  have 
said,  "  It  shall  be  done,"  and  who  have  done  it.  Paul 
does  not  encourage  or  excuse  any  half-hearted  "  beat- 
ing of  the  air  "  by  saying,  "  I  am  trying  hard  as  ever 
I  can  to  keep  my  body  under."  He  keeps  it  under. 
Stephen  does  not  try  merely  to  keep  his  temper  be- 

70 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

fore  the  prejudiced  and  persecuting  council  with  its 
suborned  false  witnesses.  He  keeps  it;  keeps  it  per- 
fectly. When  at  length  he  feels  the  thud  of  the  cruel 
stones,  his  "  Lord,  lay  not  this  sin  to  their  charge  " 
is  a  perfect  echo  of  the  "  Father,  forgive  them  "  of 
Him  who  had  felt  the  thrust  of  the  cruel  spear. 

Our  trying  is  a  poor  trying  enough  at  first,  but 
our  faith  being  fuller  of  force  than  our  trying  is  of 
faults,  we  do  not  give  over  until  at  length  we  suc- 
ceed so  well  that  the  Master  smiles  upon  us  an  ap- 
proving and  rewarding,  "  I  could  Myself  have  done  it 
no  better." 

AN   ORIGINAL   GUEST 

No  matter  how  elaborate  or  abundant  such  an  enter- 
tainment as  that  of  the  marriage-feast  in  Cana  of 
Galilee  might  be  in  other  particulars ;  in  one  particular 
there  must  be  no  failure — the  wine  must  not  give  out. 
But  it  begins  to  be  apparent  at  a  certain  stage  of  that 
banquet  that  it  is  likely  to  break  down  in  that,  as 
it  was  then  regarded,  most  important  part.  An  ill- 
natured  guest  would  have  said  unkind  things  about 
the  slenderness  of  the  provision.  Deeply  concerned 
for  the  reputation  of  the  bridegroom  and  his  friends, 
Mary  applies  to  Jesus  to  help  them  out  of  their  diffi- 
culty. He  kindly  supplies  what  is  lacking.  He  not 
only  by  his  presence  approves  and  encourages  the 
enjoyment  of  the  occasion,  but  he  takes  up  the  feast 
when  it  is  likely  to  fail  and  makes  it  a  success.     He 

71 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

rescues  the  banquet  from  the  reproach  which  would 
otherwise  have  been  sure  to  follow  and  makes  it 
honorable.  He  saves  the  feast  from  a  mortifying  de- 
cline and  prolongs  it  in  undiminished  credit  and  en- 
joyment to  the  end. 

In  its  beginning  the  world's  entertainment  promises 
well.  "  Every  man  at  the  beginning  sets  forth  that 
which  is  good."  Everything  is  bright  and  sparkling 
to  the  young.  Every  relation,  enterprise  and  occupa- 
tion promises  well  at  the  start.  Every  new  home 
gives  promise  of  contentment  and  of  pure  and  grow- 
ing affection.  Every  scheme,  ordinance  or  system 
devised  by  men  for  their  common  protection,  improve- 
ment or  happiness  is  full  of  hope  in  its  beginning. 
The  founders  of  dynasties,  governments  and  institu- 
tions are  grandly  optimistic.  But  who  can  say  that 
affairs  may  not  take  so  disastrous  a  turn  as  to  justify 
the  forebodings  of  the  most  gloomy  pessimist?  Herac- 
litus  bewailed  with  weeping  the  wickedness  of  men; 
Democritus  jeered  at  their  follies.  But  the  tears  of 
the  one  and  the  laughter  of  the  other  spoke  alike  the 
failure  of  men  in  their  search  for  a  happiness  that 
should  not  only  satisfy,  but  endure. 

Jesus  redeems  life  from  this  failure.  He  saves  it 
from  the  laughter  of  fools  on  the  one  hand,  and  from 
the  sneers  of  cynics  on  the  other.  He  keeps  it  from 
becoming  either  tragedy  or  comedy.  He  takes  up' 
the  feast  where  the  guests  were  ready  to  abandon  it 
in  disgust  or  despair,  prolongs  it  with  honor  and 
makes  it  a  success.    With  Christ  in  his  heart,  no  man 

72 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

need  ever  outlive  any  true  enjoyment  of  the  world. 
Christ  in  the  heart  keeps  pure  and  fresh  the  Chris- 
tian's love  for  nature,  for  his  friends,  for  society,  for 
literature,  science  and  art.  He  that  loves  the  Bible 
keeps  relish  for  all  good  books.  He  that  takes  Christ 
with  him  finds  unabated  enjoyment  in  all  rational  so- 
cial festivity.  The  Christian  is  no  complainer,  no  mis- 
anthropist, morose  and  soured  with  the  world.  He 
enjoys  life  more  and  longer  than  he  does  or  can  who 
has  not  Christ  for  a  friend  and  fellow-guest.  Christ 
is  staying  power  to  the  spirit.  The  Christian  outstays 
the  worldling,  even  at  the  world's  own  banqueting 
table. 

VARNISH   AND    VITALITY 

Once,  in  a  dry  time  in  summer,  I  brought  out  my 
hose  to  dash  with  water  the  vines  of  the  honeysuckle 
clustered  about  the  posts  and  railing  of  the  front 
porch,  and  where,  therefore,  they  were  seen  by  all. 
A  minute's  showering  sufficed  to  give  to  the  dry  and 
dusty  leaves  a  June  freshness  and  brightness.  A  vain 
and  superficial  vine  would  be  quite  satisfied  with  this, 
failing  to  consider  how  transient  this  freshening  and 
brightening  must  be,  and  how  soon  the  dull  and  dry 
look  will  come  back,  to  be  gotten  rid  of  again  only  by 
repeated  artificial  afifusion.  A  thoughtful  vine  would 
entreat,  "  Send  the  water  plentifully  about  my  roots, 
and  I  will  gloss  my  own  leaves  with  a  lustre  that  will 
stay.     They  shall  not  only  seem  to  be  of  a  brilliant 

7i 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

green,  they  shall  be  really  so,  made  lustrous,  not  by 
momentary  dashes  of  water  from  without,  but  by  the 
energy  of  vivifying  sap  from  within." 

1.  Here  lies  the  difference  between  communism 
and  the  methods  and  rewards  of  individual  industry 
and  enterprise.  Shower  the  communist  with  a  rain 
of  gold.  That  will  give  him  for  a  time  the  appear- 
ance of  a  man  of  force  and  thrift.  But  it  will  be  an 
appearance  only.  The  brightness  of  content  and  com- 
fort will  soon  fade,  and  to  renew  it  the  idler  and  vaga- 
bond must  be  periodically  regilt.  The  honest  man, 
the  manly  man,  says,  on  the  contrary,  "  Keep  your 
varnish  for  knaves  and  paupers.  What  I  want,  and 
all  I  want,  is  a  chance  for  the  exertion  of  my  powers. 
Give  me  materials  with  which  to  work,  and  a  chance 
to  work,  and  I  will  provide  my  own  comforts — will 
build  my  own  house,  buy  my  own  clothes,  and  set  my 
own  table." 

2.  Here,  too,  is  the  difference  between  mere  im- 
pression  and  self-^.arpression  by  means  of  ordinances 
of  worship  and  of  instruction  in  Christian  truth.  Dry 
and  sapless,  fruitless  and  flowerless  people,  get  them- 
selves freshened  up  by  attendance  on  enlivening  re- 
ligious services — fine  singing  and  eloquent  preaching. 
But  this  is  spasmodic  and  periodical.  The  water  of 
affusion  soon  dries  off,  and  the  momentary  vividness 
fades  into  the  dryness  and  deadness  of  the  old  world- 
liness.  Only  that  is  felt  which  comes  down  on  their 
passive  minds  from  without.  Living  souls,  on  the 
other  hand,  receive  the  truth  of  Christ  into  their  in- 

74 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

most  hearts,  to  reappear  in  the  abiding  freshness  and 
beauty  of  a  steadfastly  holy  life. 

APART  AND  IN   SECRET 

To  get  the  most  and  the  best  out  of  a  heap  of  grain, 
the  grain  must,  first  of  all,  be  scattered.  The  sower 
is  a  separator.  He  is  also  a  concealer.  Let  him  keep 
his  seed-corn  always  in  the  open,  and  let  him  deal  with 
it  only  by  the  bagful,  and  how  plentiful  a  crop  will 
he  be  likely  to  get  out  of  it?  That,  too,  however 
lively  a  shaking  up  he  might  now  and  then  give  to  the 
bag! 

This  close  companionship  must,  instead,  be  broken 
up  for  a  time  in  order  that  each  separate  seed  may 
have  in  secret  its  own  little  dark  cell  of  earth  whence 
its  individual  life  may  spring  forth,  and  where  it  may 
be  individually  nourished — the  seeds  thus  scattered 
soon  to  be  reassembled,  it  is  true,  but  in  what  a  more 
fruitful  and  therefore  more  glorious  fashion !  In- 
stead of  being  grouped  passively  together,  they  now 
stand  together  in  joyous  harvesting  array,  offering 
to  a  hungry  and  waiting  world  some  thirty,  some 
sixty,  some  a  hundred-fold  of  life  in  return  for  the 
life  they  have  themselves  received. 

In  our  growing  fondness  for  huge  evangelical  as- 
semblies, is  there  a  possible  danger  lest  the  religion 
of  Jesus  be  pressed  for  acceptance  in  too  impersonal 
a  way  as  the  religion  for  the  world  at  large,  and  as  a 
consequence  it  be  lost  sight  of,  that  it  is,  to  begin  with, 
for  each  and  every  one  of  us  as  individuals,  most 

75 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

simple  in  its  essence  and  precisely  the  same  for  all, 
whatever  the  age,  the  sex,  the  race  or  the  condition  ? 

But  did  not  Jesus  call  together  and  address  the  mul- 
titudes? Yes,  but  not  as  multitudes.  Most  careful 
was  He  to  individualize  them.  He  said  "  thou,"  and 
"  thy."  He  made  it  the  privilege  and  duty  of  each 
and  every  one  to  hold  separate,  trustful,  loving  com- 
munion with  his  Heavenly  Father ;  "  And  thou,  when 
thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet,  and  when  thou 
hast  shut  thy  door,  pray."  This  "  thou  "  of  our  Lord 
applies  just  as  truly  to  Chinaman,  Filipino,  African, 
Indian  or  South  Sea  Islander  as  it  does  to  the  most 
enlightened  of  worshippers  in  the  most  Christian  of 
lands. 

Is  it  not  here  that  we  have  the  real  ground  and 
guaranty  for  the  much-sought-for  church  unification, 
rather  than  in  the  increasing  frequency  or  bulk  of 
ecclesiastical,  humanitarian,  or  theological  councils, 
conferences  or  convocations?  The  Master's  closet  of 
secret  prayer  is  the  true  equalizer,  the  surest  antidote 
against  race  prejudice  and  class  separation ;  the  one 
perfect  and  blessed  unifier  of  those  who  thus  pray,  as 
loved  and  loving  children  of  the  one  common  Father 
of  them  all. 

And  what  glorious  congregations  we  are  yet  to 
have — ^brethren  thus  ,  in  heart  as  well  as  in  name — 
what  wider  and  nobler  companionship  of  souls  made 
ripe  for  Christian  fellowship  and  strong  for  Christian 
work  when  to  our  great  assemblies  each  one  shall 
come  with  a  love  that  has  been  quickened  to  a  new 

76 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

upspringing,  fruit-bearing  activity  in  that  dearest  and 
most  sacred  of  all  places  of  heavenly  communion — the 
closet  of  secret  prayer. 

VULTURE   AND   DOVE 

So  distinctively  is  the  spirit  of  God  a  spirit  of  peace 
and  confiding  gentleness  that  the  dove,  which  is  its 
emblem,  takes  readily  by  symbolic  fitness  to  the  care 
and  protection  of  men.  Secure  in  the  house  prepared 
for  it,  though  it  be  one  of  unbarred  door  and  open 
windows,  it  neither  fears  nor  suspects  harm,  as  it  has 
no  wish  or  thought  of  harming  others. 

But  is  not  this  gentle,  peaceable,  confiding  disposi- 
tion a  constant  menace  to  its  very  existence?  Does  it 
not  make  the  dove  an  easy  victim  of  all  ravenous 
birds  of  prey,  leaving  it  utterly  without  defence 
against  the  grasping  claw  and  tearing  beak  of  hawk, 
eagle,  and  vulture?  Must  not  their  crafty  rapacity 
always  prove  more  than  a  match  for  its  unwary  weak- 
ness? And  must  not  it  and  all  its  kind,  therefore,  in 
time,  wholly  perish  and,  through  "  survival  of  the 
fittest,"  leave  to  the  fierce,  the  unscrupulous  and  the 
devouring  full  possession  of  the  field? 

The  drift  of  things  indicates  already,  and  God  is 
pledged  to  show,  one  of  these  days,  beyond  all  fur- 
ther doubt  or  discussion,  what  that  is  which  He 
judges  fittest  to  survive — whether  the  meek,  the  gentle 
and  the  lowly,  or  that  which  from  its  stealthy  perch 
watches  for  a  sure  moment  in  which  to  swoop  down, 
seize,  bear  away  and  destroy.     The  success  of  hawks 

77 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

and  vultures  lies  only  in  keeping  themselves  at  a  safe 
distance  from  the  home-enclosures  of  men.  Yet  are 
they  not  by  any  means,  as  they  complacently  imagine, 
beyond  reach  always  of  the  fowler's  eye  or  marks- 
man's ball.  And  when,  struck  at  last  by  the  aveng- 
ing bolt,  the  disturber  and  destroyer  tumbles  from 
his  proud  eyrie,  none  are  sorry  and  all  are  glad. 

Year  by  year  we  see  the  noxious,  even  in  nature, 
driven  back  within  ever-narrowing  circles,  presaging 
its  utter  and  final  extinction.  It  may  still  have  fur- 
ther lease  of  existence,  but  on  one  condition  only — 
that  it  stop  hurting;  that  it  cease  betraying  the  un- 
suspecting and  harming  the  helpless.  There  are 
chances  ahead  for  the  despot  who  shall  see  his  mis- 
take and  be  done  with  his  despotism ;  for  the  envious, 
the  malicious,  the  discourteous,  the  covetous,  who 
shall  quit  their  envy,  their  malice,  their  discourtesies 
and  their  greed.  The  asp  and  the  cockatrice  may  sur- 
vive, provided  they  no  longer  shoot  poison  from  fang 
and  eye,  and  so  become  harmless  playmates  of  the  little 
child.  The  "  bear  "  may  survive,  if  he  can  make  up 
his  mind  to  feed  peaceably  "  with  the  cow,"  and  the 
"  lion,"  if  he  will  learn  to  "  eat  straw  like  the  ox." 

More  and  more  relentless  and  persistent  must  pur- 
suit to  the  death  be  of  all  wrong,  outrage  and  in- 
justice against  even  the  weakest,  most  uncomplaining 
and  unresisting  of  our  fellows — the  pursuit  kept  up 
unfalteringly  till  the  last  unrepenting  tyrant  and  tor- 
menter  shall,  with  the  last  viper  and  vulture,  have 
perished  from  the  earth. 

78 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

In  that  good  time  coming  the  meek  shall  flourish 
and  shall  possess  the  land.  When  those  who  have 
kept  themselves  apart  from  their  fellows  in  the  selfish 
seclusions  of  place  and  power  shall  have  been  brought 
low,  then  shall  room,  and  honor,  and  power,  and 
plenty  be  given  to  the  lowly. 

The  fittest  will  survive.  No  vulture  to  vex  longer 
the  freedom  of  the  upper  sky,  the  whole  wide  air  shall 
thenceforward  be  safe  and  shall  everywhere  be  win- 
nowed only  by  the  soft  wings  of  peace. 

THE  LOWER  ENNOBLED  BY  THE  HIGHER 

We  are  not  necessarily  low-lived  although  we  be 
ever  so  keenly  alive  to  that  which  is  low.  To  be 
low-lived  is  to  be  satisfied  with  that  which  is  low.  It 
is  not  his  fondness  for  eating  that  makes  the  glutton. 
It  is  that  eating  is  what  he  most  cares  for  and  lives 
for.  The  enthusiastic  student  enjoys  the  pleasures 
of  a  well-spread  table,  and  enjoys  them  none  the  less, 
but  rather  more,  because  of  his  fondness  for  study. 
Be  his  relish  for  books  never  so  keen,  he  is  still  not  in 
the  least  ashamed  to  boast  that  he  has  a  good  appetite 
and  a  good  cook. 

Yet,  let  the  student,  also,  beware.  Is  he  so  wholly 
given  to  study  that  he  begins  to  care  less  and  less  for 
his  friends?  Has  the  young  man  or  woman  away  at 
school  or  college  found  home-love  dying  out  of  his 
or  her  heart?  To  that  extent,  then,  is  he  or  she  low- 
lived.   It  was  of  such  a  one,  a  favorite  daughter,  that 

79 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

a  sorrowful  father  once  said  to  me,  "  True,  I  have 
gained  a  scholar,  but  I  have  lost  a  child ! " 

There  is  the  like  warning,  too,  for  fathers  and 
mothers — for  fathers  so  devoted  to  business,  club- 
life,  or  politics;  for  mothers  so  surrendered  to  the 
exactions  of  social  or  even  philanthropic  ambition 
as  to  justify  the  children's  lament ;  "  True,  we  have 
gained  a  captain  of  industry,  finance,  letters  or  art; 
true,  we  have  gained  a  society-star,  but  we  have  lost 
a  father,  a  mother,  and  a  home."  To  the  extent  of 
such  parental  neglect,  such  husbands,  wives,  fathers 
and  mothers  are  low-lived.  It  is  but  a  kind  of  self- 
degradation  ;  the  sacrificing  of  a  higher  form  of  life 
to  a  lower. 

Not  that  there  is  in  this  the  least  implied  censure 
of  any  sort  whatever  of  worldly  ambition,  enterprise 
or  success.  God  is  Himself  the  greatest  of  legislators 
and  rulers,  of  farm,  forest  and  mine  proprietors ;  of 
geometricians,  architects  and  artists.  Take  a  good 
look  at  Solomon  in  all  his  glory,  and  then  consider 
God's  lilies.  He  likes  to  see  His  children,  made  in 
His  own  image,  till  farms,  develop  mines,  plan  great 
engineering  works,  build  dwelling-houses,  ware- 
houses, ships,  halls  of  legislation,  justice,  science  and 
art.  "  Every  house  is  built  by  some  man."  This  is 
all  secular,  indeed ;  but  it  is,  or  should  be,  much  more 
than  that.  There  is,  or  should  be,  a  sacredness  in  it 
all.  Such  sacredness  there  is  for  the  builder  who 
reverently  considers  that  "  He  who  made  all  things 
is  God " ;  and  that  among  the  "  all  things  "  is  the 

80 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

builder  Himself.  The  crown  and  radiance  of  the 
whole  world's  business  ambition  and  enterprise  is  this 
filial  recognition  of  the  Father's  love.  Let  this  thank- 
ful acknowledgment  be  wanting,  and  God  may  well 
complain,  "  True,  I  have  gained  a  husbandman,  an 
engineer,  an  architect,  a  jurist,  a  statesman,  a  general, 
an  orator,  a  financier,  an  artist,  a  scholar;  but,  alas, 
I  have  lost  a  child !  " 

The  worldling  is  he  to  whom  the  world  is  all  and 
all.    And  herein  is  the  world's  sin. 

"ISMS"   AND   "ISTS" 

1.  When  used  as  a  suffix  to  a  person's  name,  as  in 
"  Platonism,"  "  Caesarism,"  "  Cobdenism,"  "  Moham- 
medanism," "  ism  "  denotes  certain  opinions  (usually 
in  philosophy,  economics  or  religion)  first  given  by 
such  person  to  the  world ;  and  "  ist "  one  who  makes 
such  opinions  his  own,  although  perhaps  without  the 
zeal  of  an  advocate  in  their  propagation. 

2.  Other  "  isms  "  are  simply  and  impersonally  de- 
clarative of  opinions,  as  "  deism,"  "  monotheism," 
"  socialism,"  "  agrarianism." 

3.  Others  imply  the  attaching  of  undue  and  one- 
sided importance  to  a  sentiment  or  system  in  itself 
lawful  and  good ;  as  "  despotism,"  ruling  for  the  sake 
of  ruling,  the  governed  for  the  governor  instead  of 
the  governor  for  the  governed,  the  ship  for  the  rud- 
der instead  of  the  rudder  for  the  ship.  Or,  as  "  fa- 
naticism " — uncharitable  fury  uncontrolled  by  reason 
in  the  advocacy  of  opinion. 

81 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

4.  In  other  cases  still  "  ism  "  means  simply  either 
the  denying  and  repvidiating  of  certain  systems  or 
assertions,  as  "  nihilism,"  having  nothing  to  do  with 
civil  government ;  "  atheism,"  having  nothing  to  do 
with  God;  or  merely  professed  ignorance  as  to  the 
truth  of  certain  tenets  or  beliefs,  as  "  agnosticism." 

There  are,  therefore,  both  good  "  isms  "  and  bad. 
What  Truth  and  Right  aim  at  is  either  the  enlighten- 
ing of  blind  "  isms  "  and  "  ists,"  or  the  expanding  to 
something  broader  and  more  comprehensive  of  that 
which  is  narrow  and  contracted. 

GOING   THROUGH   THE    MOTIONS 

Some  of  the  most  fruitful  Sunday-school  work  any- 
where done  has  been  done  in  log-cabin  settlements  in 
the  distant  West.  Now,  with  our  luxuriously-ap- 
pointed churches,  chapel  and  Sunday-school  rooms, 
well-filled  libraries,  "  lesson-helps "  without  number, 
and  fine  vocal  and  instrumental  music,  why  are  such 
meagre  spiritual  results  so  much  debated  and  de- 
plored ? 

More  than  a  place  to  work  in,  tools  to  work  with 
and  materials  to  work  up,  is  the  workman  himself. 
The  place  may  be  a  poor  one,  the  tools  scanty  and 
rude,  the  materials  unpromising,  yet  a  workman  whose 
heart  is  thoroughly  in  his  work  may  have  more  to 
show  for  it  in  the  end  than  another,  although  in  every 
respect  better  equipped,  but  who  having  no  clear  and 
earnest  aim  is  satisfied  with  simply  going  through  the 
prescribed  motions. 

82   . 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

The  most  devoted  and  conscientious  teachers  and 
preachers  are  the  ones  who  most  fully  realize  and  who 
most  dread  the  danger  of  professionalism  in  their 
work — the  danger,  in  other  words,  of  being  satisfied 
with  simply  going  through  the  motions.  So  much 
easier  is  formalism  than  spiritual  fidelity,  that  with 
those  not  thus  heartily  and  prayerfully  devoted  to 
their  work,  the  mistake  most  likely  to  be  made  is  that 
of  devising  and  organizing  some  new  motions  to  be 
gone  through  with. 

THE   FIRST   AND    SECOND   BIRTHS 

To  attain  completeness  of  body  or  mind  we  need,  so 
far  as  mere  capability  is  concerned,  but  the  growing 
life-energy  with  which  we  are  born.  The  infant's 
brain,  hand  and  foot  are  already  perfect,  save  in  size, 
and  in  due  time  as  a  simple  matter  of  course  complete 
size  will  also  be  attained.  Once  made,  the  child  does 
not  need  to  be  re-made.  Samson  needed  not  to  be 
born  again  in  order  that  he  might  pull  down  the  pil- 
lars of  Dagon's  temple;  or  Cleopatra,  to  become  the 
most  beautiful  woman  of  her  time;  or  Angelo,  to  ex- 
cel in  architecture ;  or  La  Place,  in  astronomy ;  Bee- 
thoven in  music,  or  Webster,  in  law,  eloquence  and 
statesmanship. 

"  Is  this  little  boy  of  yours  well  up  in  mathematics, 
chemistry,  physics  or  mental  and  moral  science?" 
"  No,"  answers  the  father,  "  he  is  too  young  yet,  but 
I  am  expecting  him  to  grow  to  it  all  one  of  these  days. 

83 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

Time  and  study  will  do  it.  They  will  of  themselves 
be  the  making  of  him  as  a  scholar  and  a  man," 

Is  the  like  true  of  the  spiritual  in  us?  Some  there 
are  who  say  so ;  some  who  deny  both  the  fact  and  the 
need  of  spiritual  regeneration;  maintaining,  as  they 
do,  that  here  also  generation  is  enough ;  that  in  the 
first  birth  spiritual  growth  and  completeness  are  po- 
tentially given ;  that  we  are  at  birth  as  truly  alive  spir- 
itually as  we  are  physically  and  mentally;  that  just 
as  a  child  needs  but  to  be  introduced  at  the  right  age 
to  each  of  the  different  studies  of  his  course,  in  order 
that  he  may  grasp  and  enjoy  them,  so  will  he,  in  due 
course  of  development,  come  just  as  naturally  and 
just  as  surely  to  understand,  enjoy  and  practically 
apply  moral  and  spiritual  truth;  that  beholding  in 
His  Works  and  Word  the  glory  of  God,  he  will  be 
changed  gradually  into  the  same  image;  not  by  the 
"  Spirit  of  the  Lord,"  but  by  the  naturally  assimilative 
power  of  his  own  spirit. 

Some  people's  prospects  for  heaven  would  un- 
doubtedly, so  it  seems  to  us  at  least,  be  vastly  improved 
could  they  only  be  born  again  in  that  literal  sense  in 
which  Nicodemus  took  the  declaration  of  Jesus — ^born, 
that  is,  of  better  parents  who  would  give  to  their 
second  childhood  better  teaching  and  greater  encour- 
agements to  right  living  and  with  fewer  things  to 
lead  them  astray.  But  since  by  even  such  a  second 
birth  as  that  Nicodemus  could  not  in  his  own  estima- 
tion have  "  stood  fairer  for  the  Kingdom  of  God 
than  as  a  born  Israelite  he  already  stood,"  Jesus  at 

84 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

once  explains  to  him  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  new 
birth ;  declares  the  need  of  it  to  be  universal ;  sweeps 
away  at  a  breath  the  idea  of  the  sufficiency  in  order 
to  salvation  of  all  mere  human  endeavor;  asserts  in 
the  most  clear  and  positive  way  that  what  men  need 
for  the  attainment  of  righteousness  is  not  any  new 
philosophy  of  life,  but  a  new  life ;  that  not  one,  even 
of  the  most  naturally  favored  of  men,  can  grow  for 
himself  a  new  heart,  which  must  ever  be  a  free  gift 
from  above,  and  that  no  man,  unless  re-born  of  water 
and  the  Spirit,  can  "  enter  "  or  even  "  see  "  the  king- 
dom of  God. 

Authority  on  a  great  matter  like  this,  for  those  who 
accept  it  as  supreme  and  final,  precludes  further  specu- 
lation, questioning  or  debate.  Having  fullest  confi- 
dence in  Jesus  as  "  a  teacher  sent  from  God,"  Nico- 
demus,  with  becoming  modesty  and  humility,  yields 
his  acknowledged  Master's  right  to  choose  his  own 
topic  and  to  lead  in  the  conversation.  "  Hear  ye  Him  " 
is  the  most  reasonable  command  for  all  such  as  have 
first  accepted  as  from  heaven  that  other  declaration, 
"  This  is  my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased." 

UNUSED    SPICES 

Love  is  love,  however  blind  or  mistaken  its  methods. 
Were  the  "  spices"  which  the  Marys  and  the  "  others 
with  them "  brought  to  the  sepulchre,  in  sorrowing 
love  for  their  buried  Lord,  less  odorous  or  precious 
because  not  needed? 

85 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

Our  careful  and  costly  preparations  for  doing  some 
special  work  for  the  Master  may  turn  out  to  have 
been  utterly  wasted.  We  find  things  to  be  quite 
the  opposite  of  what  we  expected.  Health  gives  out 
at  the  very  moment  of  intended  action;  or,  through 
unlooked-for  reverses,  the  means  fail  just  at  the  last 
for  doing  what  we  had  set  our  hearts  on  accomplishing. 
The  devoted  Lowrie  goes  down  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal 
with  the  ship  which  is  nearing  the  land,  to  bless  which 
with  his  missionary  labors  he  had  made  long  and  ex- 
pensive preparation. 

A  father  has  planned  to  give  the  best  education  he 
can  to  an  only  son ;  but  the  son  dies  on  the  very  thresh- 
old of  his  educational  career.  The  father's  generous 
hands  are  stayed  and  held. 

In  what  strange  perplexities  are  we  thus  sometimes 
overwhelmingly  plunged !  How  inscrutable  God's 
dealings  with  us  and  ours! 

But  not  always,  and  not  for  long,  does  the  Father 
mean  that  His  children  shall  be  kept  in  harrowing 
suspense,  nor  long  be  balked  in  the  expression  of 
their  love.  Men,  in  shining  garments,  appear  to  the 
baffled  and  wondering  disciples  with  words  of  ex- 
planation, of  promise  and  of  larger  hope.  The  love 
of  these  faithful  disciples  shall  find  expression  still — 
only  in  higher,  purer  and  more  joyous  ways.  How 
much  better,  heart-satisfying  worship  of  a  risen  and 
ever-living  Saviour,  than  spices,  however  odorous  and 
costly,  for  a  dead  and  buried  Christ! 

It  may  be,  instead,  that  the  way  to  our  intended 
86 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

work  proves  to  be  more  open  to  us  than  we  had  at 
first  thought.  We  may  find  the  stone  rolled  away 
for  us — an  obstacle  removed  we  could  not  have  our- 
selves surmounted^ — so  that  we  can  enter  more 
quickly,  even  than  we  had  supposed,  the  field  of  our 
purposed  deed  of  love.  But  then  the  field  itself  we 
find  to  be  altogether  abandoned.  That  on  which  we 
were  about  to  bestow  our  labor  is  gone ;  we  know  not 
whither, 

A  mother  makes  a  long  and  tedious  journey  to 
see  a  sick  child,  taking  with  her  carefully-prepared 
gifts  for  her  child's  relief  and  comfort.  But  she  has 
no  sooner  come  than  she  is  told  that  her  child  is 
no  longer  living.  What  now  of  the  gifts,  of  which 
her  loving  hands  are  full  ?  The  dear  one,  on  whom 
she  is  ready  to  bestow  them,  is  no  longer  here  to 
receive  them. 

With  God,  motive  governs  and  determines  the  re- 
ward. The  motive  right  and  pure,  lamented  mistakes 
turn  always,  in  the  end,  to  joyous  surprises. 

What  became  of  those  first  Sunday's  spices?  They 
have  a  precious  existence  still.  Although  unused, 
yet,  like  the  spikenard,  that  zvas  used  before  His 
burial,  they  at  once  took  on  the  power  of  living  and 
most  persuasive  speech.  "  Wherever  this  Gospel  is 
preached,"  with  what  a  tongue  do  they  tell  even  us 
of  the  ignorance  and  unbelief  of  our  sorrow,  and  of 
the  greater,  more  exalted  and  more  glorious  scope  of 
God's  plans  respecting  Jesus  and  ourselves! 

Odorous  spices  and  beautiful  flowers,  if  you  will; 
87 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

you  who  drop  unbidden  tears  over  the  graves  of  your 
loved  ones — spices  and  flowers  and  tears,  but  never, 
with  them,  words  of  lamentation  and  despair.  Let  our 
thoughts  rather  be  of  angels,  in  shining  garments, 
with  whom  the  ascended  souls  of  our  departed  are 
even  now  walking,  and  of  Jesus,  who  walks  with 
them  evermore  by  the  banks  of  the  river  of  life. 

THE    SUCCESSFUL   PLEA 

The  sure  way  to  the  ear  and  heart  of  God  is  an 
acknowledgment  of  unworthiness.  No  man  who  sin- 
cerely makes  this  acknowledgment  fails  in  his  suit.  "  I 
am  not  worthy  of  all  the  mercies  and  of  all  the  truth 
which  thou  hast  showed  unto  thy  servant,"  brought 
loving  answer  to  Jacob's  prayer  for  deliverance  from 
Esau.  "  Who  am  I  and  what  is  my  house  that  thou 
hast  brought  me  hitherto?"  is  the  self-renouncing 
preface  to  David's  prayer  for  a  perpetual  blessing  on 
his  reign.  It  is  with  a  smile  of  pity  at  their  ignorance 
of  Jesus  that  we  hear  the  Jewish  elders  interceding 
with  Him  for  the  centurion's  servant,  on  the  ground 
"  that  he  was  zvorthy  for  whom  He  should  do  this." 
And  this  is  followed  by  a  thrill  of  admiration  at  the 
truer  apprehension  and  stronger  faith  of  the  centurion 
himself,  shown  by  the  very  opposite  plea,  "  Lord, 
trouble  not  thyself,  for  I  am  not  worthy  that  thou 
shouldest  enter  under  my  roof." 

Every  humble,  candid  man  makes  the  self-same  plea 
before  God,  and  wishes  to  make  no  other.  "  I  am  not 
worthy  to  be  called  thy  son,"  was  the  only  word  the 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

prodig-al  could  use,  or  found  it  in  his  heart  to  use, 
when  he  "  arose  and  came  to  his  father."  Had  he 
found  himself  really  about  to  "  perish  "  in  the  fields 
among  the  swine,  that  is  the  word  he  would  have 
directed  to  be  written  above  his  grave,  "  Unworthy  " 
might  then  have  met  the  grieving  father's  eye,  in- 
stead of  falling,  as  it  did,  on  the  rejoicing  father's 
ear.  And  just  that  is  what  all  grave-stones,  if  truly 
inscribed,  must  say  to  the  eye  of  the  Heavenly  Father 
from  whom  all  have  gone  astray.  But  more  may  now 
be  inscribed,  seeing  that  the  prodigal  lived  to  return 
and  has  given  us  proof  of  the  Father's  tenderest  com- 
passion. Beneath  the  Prodigal's  heart-broken  "  Un- 
worthy," there  may  now  be  carved  the  ring,  the  shoes, 
the  robe,  and  the  table  laden  with  the  feast.  What 
inscription  and  what  emblems  could  more  truly  or 
touchingly  befit  the  burial-tablet  of  any  dear  child  of 
God? 

COMMON-SENSE,  FAITH  AND  IGNORANCE 

The  acting  out  of  true  religion,  as  we  find  it  un- 
folded in  one  of  our  Lord's  parables,  is  made  up  in 
about  equal  parts  of  Common-Sense,  Faith  and  Ig- 
norance. The  husbandman  "  casts  seed  into  the 
ground."  That  is  his  common-sense.  This  done,  he 
"  sleeps  and  rises  night  and  day,"  in  full  confidence 
that  the  seed  will  "  spring  and  grow  up."  That  is 
hjs  faith.  But,  it  is  added,  he  "  knoweth  not  how." 
That  is  his  ignorance. 

89 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

For  the  doer  of  the  things  that  most  need  to  be 
done,  this  "  how  "  is  a  question  which  may  either  be 
ignored  or  the  consideration  of  which  may  be  in- 
definitely postponed.  Be  she  the  veriest  "  fool "  as 
to  the  chemistry  of  combustion,  the  housemaid  "  errs  " 
not  in  the  boiling  of  her  tea-kettle.  Be  the  husband- 
man ever  so  unversed  in  the  philosophy  of  plant- 
growth,  he  is  yet  at  no  loss  as  to  the  plowing  of  his 
field  or  the  sowing  of  his  seed.  He  is  not  that  other 
fool  he  would  surely  be,  were  he  either  to  decline  or 
delay  his  farm-work,  unless  he  first  have  fully  ex- 
plained to  him  the  scientific  secret  of  seed-sprouting, 
stalk-shooting  and  ear-filling.  Prompt  to  do  his  stint, 
he  trusts  with  no  distraction  of  doubt  that  his  silent 
and  unseen  Co-Worker  will  do  His  own  full  share 
of  their  joint  undertaking;  that  He  will  see  to  it  that 
soil  and  sun  and  shower  and  season  do,  each,  its  ap- 
pointed task.  Caring  less  for  causes  than  for  results, 
so  the  outcome  be  sure,  he  will  not  stumble  at  the 
mystery  of  the  cause.  Accepting  the  established  facts 
of  farming  experience,  he  goes  cheerily  through  the 
whole  round  of  summer  toil,  not  puzzling  himself 
about  those  hidden  links  which  join  his  own  work  with 
the  greater  work  of  God. 

As  is  the  domain  of  earth,  so,  also,  is  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven.  The  husbandman  knows  well  what  his 
farm  duties  are.  We  know  just  as  well  what  our  Chris- 
tian duties  are.  We  know  what  it  is,  first  of  all,  to 
treat  one  another  in  a  Christian  way ;  to  do  to  others 
and  to  all  others  as  we  would  have  them  do  to  us ;  what 

90 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

it  is  to  put  envy  away  from  us  and  to  rejoice  in  the 
gifts,  acquirements,  and  successes  of  others  as  we 
would  have  them  rejoice  in  our  own ;  what  it  is  to  lend 
a  helping  heart  to  those  in  sorrow  and  a  helping  hand 
to  those  in  need.  We  know  what  it  is  to  love,  pray  for 
and  forgive  our  enemies.  Equally  well  do  we  know 
that  besides  these  duties  toward  our  fellow-men,  we 
are  to  seek  for  a  nearer  acquaintance  with  God  by 
diligent  study  of  His  Word  and  by  prayer.  We  know 
that  we  are  to  pray  in  our  closets  and  that  we  are 
to  use  all  social  and  public  helps  of  Christ's  appoint- 
ment. 

All  these  are  just  as  plain  duties  of  the  Christian  as 
were  those  in  the  parable  of  the  husbandman.  Are 
we  practising  these  duties?  We  cannot  but  be  grow- 
ing Christians  if  we  are.  And  these  duties  any  Chris- 
tian may  do  and  be  wholly  ignorant  of  technical 
theology.  No  man  who  wishes  to  come  to  Christ 
need  lose  a  moment's  sleep  because  he  cannot  under- 
stand the  new  birth  or  reconcile  fore-ordination  with 
free-will.  We  may  have  the  full  and  blessed  benefit 
of  prayer  and  know  nothing  of  its  philosophy.  We 
may  plant  and  water  and  gather  precious  fruit  in  the 
Lord's  vineyard,  yet  know  not  how  it  is  that  God 
quickens  the  seed  and  gives  the  increase.  Enough 
for  us  that  He  does  bless  our  labor  for  Him  and  for 
souls ;  enough  that  He  does  bless  to  us  the  Word 
and  prayer,  and  the  sacraments  and  fellowship  of 
His  church.  We  may  not  see  it  from  day  to  day, 
but  if  we  are  doing  our  part  faithfully  we  may  rest 

91 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

in  assured  confidence  that  God  is  doing  His ;  and  that 
we  are,  therefore,  both  growing  to  the  stature  of 
perfect  men  in  Christ  and  gathering  fruit  unto  Hfe 
eternal. 


92 


IV 


A   RELIGION    OF   FACTS 

Christianity  has  for  its  key-phrase,  "  And  it  came 
to  pass."  It  is  distinguished  from  false  religions  in 
that  it  is  essentially  a  record  of  events.  It  is  this 
advantage  which  it  has  of  certified  narration  over  un- 
certain speculation  that  gives  it  a  reach  v^hich  is  in- 
finitely above  all  that  to  which  even  the  most  profound 
philosophy  has  ever  attained.  Who  of  all  the  "  wise 
and  prudent  "  thinkers  of  all  the  ages  is  more  wise  and 
prudent  than  is  Plato?  Yet  Plato  has  no  story  to 
tell  us.  It  is  the  Athenian  cult.  What  "  all  the 
Athenians  "  want,  what  "  all  the  strangers  "  who  have 
caught  from  them  the  spirit  of  mental  collision  and 
combat  want,  is  not  finalities,  but  new  and  yet  newer 
things  about  which  there  can  be  no  end  of  discussion 
— a  competitive  field  for  logical  and  metaphysical 
gymnastics.  So  long  as  St.  Paul  has  anything  to  offer 
about  which  they  can  dispute  with  him,  it  is  all  right. 
They  will  not  only  argue  with  him  to  the  "end  of 
the  chapter,"  but  they  will  then  be  just  as  eager  to 
begin  a  new  chapter  of  disputation.  The  history  of 
philosophy,  indeed,  has  no  last  chapter,  ending  with 
maledictions  against  any  man  who  shall  either  add 
to,  or  take  from,  the  words  that  have  been  already 
spoken. 

93 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

St.  Paul  does  indeed  have  something  new  to  say  to 
these  ever-inquisitive  Athenians  by  way  of  argument, 
but  what  is  vastly  more  to  the  purpose,  he  has  news 
to  tell  them.  He  is  not,  from  choice,  a  disputant. 
He  is,  chief  of  all,  a  reporter  of  up-to-date  transac- 
tions. They  listen  not  only  patiently,  but  interestedly, 
to  the  new  argument  about  "  the  unknown  god  " ;  but 
no  sooner  does  he  go  on  to  clinch  his  argument  with 
the  news  of  Christ's  resurrection,  than  they  call  him 
down,  and,  with  their  hootings  and  cat-calls,  compel 
him  to  stop. 

It  is  the  historically  established  fact  of  the  resur- 
rection that  makes  it  so  well  worth  while  to  know 
all  else  that  can  be  known  about  the  words  and  works 
of  Jesus.  But  for  His  resurrection  all  else  would  be 
but  little  more  than  a  matter  of  interesting  but  merely 
human  biography.  His  having  been  both  "  raised  up  " 
and  "  taken  up "  gives  a  life-and-death  significance 
to  His  whole  mission  upon  earth. 

Essentially,  then.  Christian  preachers  are  always 
and  everywhere  to  be  evangelists — to  preach  as  the 
Evangelists  wrote — not  inferences,  experiences,  sys- 
tems or  dogmas,  but — facts.  It  is  the  "  Gospel — ^the 
Good  News — according  to  Matthew  " — not  the  cate- 
chism or  the  creed.  "  Ye  are  my  witnesses,"  says 
Jesus;  and  the  business  of  a  witness  is  to  tell  not 
what  he,  the  witness,  feels  or  infers  from  the  facts, 
but  the  facts.  Tell  the  facts.  Tell  them  over  and  over 
again.  Keep  on  telling  them.  Then  let  the  facts 
speak   for   themselves.     Let  them    make   their   own 

94 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

appeal  to  the  minds,  consciences  and  hearts  of  those 
who  hear  them.  "  It  is  the  facts,"  says  Paul  to  his 
Corinthian  brethren,  "  in  which  you  stand.  It  is  the 
facts  by  which  you  are  saved.  It  is  the  facts  that 
you  are  to  hold  fast — the  facts  which  I  delivered  to 
you,  first  of  all,  and  which  you  also  received' — how 
that  Christ  died  for  our  sins,  that  He  was  buried,  and 
that  He  was  raised  again  the  third  day ;  that,  as  an 
indisputable  proof  of  this,  He  was  seen  of  Cephas, 
then  of  the  twelve ;  after  that,  of  five  hundred  brethren 
at  once ;  that  He  was  seen  of  James,  then  of  all  the 
apostles ;  and,  last  of  all,  of  me  also." 

Some  are,  no  doubt,  at  a  loss  to  know  just  how 
to  take  St.  Paul  when  he  says  that  he  rejoices  and 
will  continue  to  rejoice  in  even  make-belief  preachers 
of  Christ ;  who  have  only  a  feigned  interest  in  what 
they  preach.  What  has  now  been  said  makes  it  easy 
of  interpretation.  If  there  be  a  fact  which  it  is  all- 
important  for  the  world  to  know,  let  any  one  tell 
it  who  will.  The  Tories  of  the  American  Revolution 
did  not  much  like  the  way  the  war  had  ended.  Yet, 
if  they  pretended  to  like  it,  and  started  out  to  spread 
abroad  the  good  news  of  the  peace  that  had  been  made 
with  the  mother  country,  even  the  most  loyal  of  pa- 
triots would  have  bid  them  Godspeed.  "  Tell  it  to  all 
the  inhabitants  of  the  land."  It  is  what  they  want ; 
what  they  need ;  what  they  are  waiting  to  hear. 

"  Go  into  all  the  world,"  is  the  great  commission, 
"  and  tell  to  every  creature  in  it  the  '  good  news '  of 
Him  who  raised  up  Jesus  our  Lord  from  the  dead ; 

95 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

who,   having   been    deHvered    for    our   offences,    was 
raised  again  for  our  justification." 

THE   MULTITUDE   OF   THE    SAVED 

It  is  both  comforting  and  inspiring  to  note  the 
different  ways  in  which  the  earth's  population  and  the 
population  of  heaven  are  increased. 

Here,  one  goes  out  of  the  world  almost  as  fast 
as  another  comes  into  it.  Had  it  been  all  entrance 
and  no  exit,  the  globe's  population,  like  the  corn  which 
Joseph  gathered  in  Egypt,  had  long  since  exceeded 
the  limit  of  practical  notation.  As  it  is,  decrease  by 
death  keeps  almost  even  pace  with  increase  by  birth. 
The  most  healthful  city  outgrows  but  slowly  the  en- 
closures of  its  dead.  Through  war,  famine,  pesti- 
lence, earthquake,  volcano,  fire  or  flood,  the  ratios 
may  be  so  sadly  and  suddenly  reversed  that,  as  in 
Martinique,  it  becomes  easier  to  count  the  living  than 
the  dead.  While  it  may  have  taxed  an  antediluvian 
statesman's  power  of  computation  to  sum  that  old 
world's  population,  a  child  now  needs  but  his  "  eight " 
fingers  to  tell  how  many  souls  were  then  "  saved  by 
water."  To  know  at  any  nightfall  the  aggregate  of 
the  earth's  inhabitants,  we  must  take  from  that  day's 
census  of  the  newly  come,  the  evening  list  of  the  newly 
gone. 

But,  thanks  be  to  the  Love  which  we  know  has 
provided  it,  there  is  another  world — another  and  a 
better.     Were  it  not  so,  He  who  knows  both  worlds 

96 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

would  surely  have  told  us.  In  that  world  whosoever 
comes,  comes  to  stay — no  departing  and  hence  no 
parting;  no  cemetery  census  there  to  be  subtracted 
from  that  fair  city's  ever-growing  population;  no 
name  ever  dropped  from  that  heavenly  directory,  the 
Lamb's  Book  of  Life ;  the  new  heaven,  new  in  that 
it  is  convulsed  by  no  hurricane,  cyclone,  tempest  or 
tornado ;  the  new  earth,  new  in  that  no  life  is  ever 
lost  by  sickness,  earthquake,  volcano,  fire  or  flood. 

Now  and  then  an  earthly  monarch  sees  with  alarm 
that  the  population  of  his  empire  has  come  to  a  stand- 
still. Never  so  with  our  Immanuel's  Kingdom.  It  is 
ever  and  forever  on  the  increase;  a  Kingdom  of 
which  there  is  no  more  an  end  of  souls  than  of  years. 
About  this  wonderful  expansion  St.  John  the  Divine 
had  in  Patmos  his  once  narrow  notions  wonderfully 
expanded.  He  "  heard,"  but  what  he  afterward 
"  saw  "  was  infinitely  more  than  what  he  had  heard. 
What  he  heard  was  but  "  a  number  " ;  the  number  of 
"  all  "  that  were  "  sealed  of  the  tribes  of  the  children 
of  Israel."  That  exact  calculation  of  the  chosen,  the 
covenant  people  of  God,  is  as  far  as  at  one  time  even 
the  "  beloved  disciple  "  would  have  gone,  had  he  like 
Jesus  been  asked,  "  Are  there  few  that  be  saved  ? " 
But  after  this  numerical  hearing  the  Revelator  sees — 
and  lo,  "  a  great  multitude  whom  no  man  could 
number  of  all  nations  and  kindreds  and  people  and 
tongues  standing  before  the  throne  and  before  the 
Lamb,  clothed  with  white  robes  and  palms  in  their 
hands  and  crying  with  a  loud  voice,  '  Salvation  to  our 

97 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

God   which    sitteth    upon    the    throne   and    unto    the 
Lamb.'  " 

ENJOYMENT  FOLLOWING  SURRENDER 

Our  houses  were  within  eye-shot  of  one  another, 
and  we  were  back  and  forth  in  them  almost  every- 
day. They,  of  the  other  house,  were  a  young  married 
couple.  The  union  being  every  way  a  most  congenial 
one,  they  were  the  happiest  of  the  happy  in  their  new 
home — a  bond  all  the  more  strong  and  tender  because 
hallowed  by  a  common  love  to  the  same  Saviour.  His 
position  as  a  University  professor  being  exactly 
suited  to  one  of  his  fine  literary  tastes,  combined  with 
a  fondness  and  aptitude  for  teaching,  gave  promise 
of  a  long,  successful  and  happy  career. 

The  thwarting  of  these  fondly  cherished  hopes 
came  in  a  wholly  unlooked-for  time  and  way.  Soon 
after  the  birth  of  their  second  child,  the  young  mother 
was  taken  with  a  severe  pulmonary  illness — not 
alarming  at  first,  but  steadily  persistent  and  increas- 
ingly violent.  The  symptoms  at  length  pointed  to 
slow  and  remediless  consumption.  Although  grievously 
concerned  for  the  final  result,  the  husband  would  not 
for  weeks  allow  himself  to  despair  of  her  ultimate 
restoration  to  her  former  unimpaired  health.  But, 
despite  all  that  the  best  medical  skill  and  the  most 
faithful  nursing  could  do,  the  physician  was  forced, 
at  length,  to  pronounce  the  case  beyond  hope  of 
cure. 

Calling  at  my  friend's  house  soon  after  this  fateful 
98 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

announcement,  he  met  me  at  the  door,  took  me  by 
the  hand,  and  led  me  into  a  room  apart,  and  while 
we  were  kneeling  in  prayer,  although  it  was  with 
streaming  tears  and  in  an  agony  of  grief,  he  then 
and  there  made  a  full  surrender  of  that  dearest  treas- 
ure of  his  heart  which  he  acknowledged  as  a  now 
sovereignly  recalled  gift  of  his  Heavenly  Father's  love. 

The  surrender  was  complete.  The  battle  against 
doubt  and  dread  and  despair  was  fought  to  so  clear 
and  decisive  an  issue  as  never,  even  for  a  moment 
afterward,  to  be  renewed ;  victory  over  death  was 
won,  weeks  in  advance  of  its  approach.  The  in- 
valid's trust  has  been  serene  and  unshaken  from'  the 
first.  Now  they  are  one  in  confident  assurance  that 
all  has  been  ordered  in  infinite  wisdom  and  love. 
Their  earthly  companionship  is  indeed  soon  to  be 
broken,  but  it  will,  ere  long,  be  renewed  in  a  brighter 
and  happier  sphere,  never  to  suffer  interruption  again. 

The  sick  room,  on  which  had  rested  the  gloom  of 
the  husband's  hitherto  inconsolable  grief,  is  now  so 
brightened  by  his  changed  look  and  manner  that 
friends  are  drawn  to  it  by  the  cheerful  greetings  with 
which  their  visits  are  now  met.  The  winter  sunshine 
which  floods  the  room  typifies  the  confiding  love  which 
now  brightens  all  hearts  and  faces.  It  is  the  joy  of 
sweet  and  loving  surrender.  And  it  continues  to  the 
end. 

In  an  even  more  beautiful  way  the  invalid  mother 
evinced  the  reality  and  depth  of  the  like  joy-imparting 
surrender.     The  new-born  child  was  sent  miles  away 

99 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

in  the  country  to  a  faithful  nurse,  who  was  in  the  habit 
of  bringing  the  baby  in,  every  few  days,  for  the 
mother  to  see.  A  friend  suggested  to  the  mother 
that  this  was  mistaken  kindness  on  the  part  of  the 
nurse,  owing  to  the  new  pain  which  each  of  these 
partings  must  give  her.  "  Oh,  no,"  she  said.  "  I 
had  my  final  parting  with  the  little  fellow  weeks  ago. 
I  gave  him  up  to  God  as  soon  as  I  was  assured  that 
I  was  not  going  to  get  well.  The  pain  of  parting 
is  over;  let  the  nurse  bring  him  in  as  she  has  been 
doing." 

How  well  for  us  could  we  as  God's  children  an- 
ticipate our  appointed  end  by  an  immediate,  full  and 
loving  surrender  to  Him  of  our  whole  earthly  life 
and  of  all,  even  the  most  valued,  of  our  earthly  plans, 
ambitions,  possessions  and  hopes.  From  the  moment 
of  such  voluntary  divesting  ourselves  of  it,  then,  and 
then  only,  do  we  enter  on  our  fullest  enjoyment  of  the 
world. 

THE    SILENT   LIFE 

For  one,  I  know  of  nothing  on  earth  so  sweetly 
hallowed,  so  exquisitely  sacred,  as  the  silent  life  of  a 
little  child;  nothing  which  so  directly  and  without 
the  medium  of  any  consciously  intellectual  process 
assures  us  of  the  being  of  God  by  bringing  upon  the 
spirit  the  hush  of  His  over-shadowing  presence.  It 
was  for  those  silent  beatitudes  which  come  only  in 
answer  to  prayer  that  those  far-seeing  mothers  who 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

brought  their  Httle  ones  to  Jesus,  came  asking  that 
He  would  "  lay  His  hands  on  them  and  pray." 

The  record  is  not  that  Jesus  loved  and  prayed  for 
little  children  as  a  class,  but  that  He  took  them  in 
His  arms,  one  by  one  and  that,  one  by  one.  He  blessed 
them.  He  was  careful  to  individualize  even  little 
children ;  He  said,  "  This  little  child."  By  so  doing 
and  saying  He  but  repeated  what  was  done  and  said, 
when  His  own  mother  having  brought  Him  to  the 
temple  to  do  for  Him  after  the  manner  of  the  law, 
the  devout  Simeon  took  Him  in  his  arms  and  said, 
"  This  child  is  set  for  the  fall  and  rising  again  of 
many  in  Israel." 

Nor  of  little  children  only  is  it  true,  this  person- 
alizing by  prayer.  This  silent  life,  this  deep,  ineradi- 
cable consciousness  of  his  affinity  with  the  unseen 
Creator  and  the  unending  hereafter,  is  that  which 
more  than  aught  else  individualizes  each  and  every 
man  both  to  himself  and  to  God ;  which  assures  him 
that  he  is  more  than  an  inconsiderable  fraction,  more 
than  an  undistinguishable  atom  of  some  huge,  ag- 
glutinated mass;  that  he  is,  instead,  a  distinct  per- 
sonal unit;  a  separate,  whole,  responsible  member 
of  the  family  and  Kingdom  of  God ;  as  surely,  as 
completely  so,  as  though  he  were  the  only  child  of  the 
family,  the  sole  subject  of  that  divine  Kingdom. 

After  the  fight  at  Chattanooga  those  who  were  sent 
to  bury  the  slain  are  said  to  have  come  upon  a  dead 
Union  boy  in  a  sitting  posture — ^his  back  against  a 
tree  and  in  his  lap  a  pocket-Bible  lying  open  at  the 

lOI 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

twenty-third  Psalm.  How,  on  the  instant,  does  this 
one  young  man  change  for  us  the  whole  aspect  of 
that  battlefield !  Before  the  battle  we  were  thinking 
of  the  opposing  armies  only  as  two  great  wholes,  as 
but  two  terribly  destructive  machines — the  sole  ques- 
tion at  issue  being  which  of  the  two  were  the  more 
likely  to  out-match,  out-fight,  and  out-destroy  the 
other.  But  how  completely  is  the  whole  struggling 
mass  now  resolved  into  distinct  and  rounded  person- 
alities ;  how  flashed  upon  us  the  conviction  that  amid 
all  the  roar,  confusion  and  carnage  of  battle,  each 
soldier  stands  just  as  clearly  apart  to  the  All-seeing 
Eye  as  in  the  stillness  and  solitariness  of  the  closet 
of  secret  prayer.  How  blessedly  real  it  makes  for  us 
the  fact  of  a  close,  personal  relationship  to  Christ, 
and  the  possibility  that  this  relationship  may  be  for 
each  and  every  soul  a  union  of  intimate  confidence ; 
of  sweet  and  indissoluble  afifection.  How  it  raises 
us  above  the  dreary  monotony  of  all  commonest 
things,  lifting  each  soul  to  the  sacredness  of  individual 
fellowship  with  the  one  all-merciful  Father,  the  ever- 
loving  Saviour,  the  all-comforting  Spirit.  Instead  of 
the  noun  of  multitude,  "  mankind,"  so  cheerless  in 
its  vagueness  and  generality,  how  it  gives  us,  in  its 
stead,  the  warm,  loving  personality,  giving  us  to  Christ 
by  our  names  and  giving  Christ  by  all  His  appropriate 
names  to  us;  inviting  us  whenever  we  will  to  turn 
away  from  all  the  neglects,  injustices,  envies  and 
cruelties  of  the  world,  and  with  the  upward  glance 
of  the  loving  child's  confidence  to  say,  "  The   Lord 

102 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

is  my  shepherd ;  /  shall  not  want.  He  leadeth  7ne 
by  the  still  waters.  He  restoreth  my  soul.  Thy  rod 
and  thy  staff  they  comfort  me." 

The  Bible  is,  in  this  respect,  just  such  a  book  as 
we  might  expect  it  to  be,  if  it  be  indeed  a  message 
from  God  to  us  His  children. 

It  was  the  sad  lament  of  one  of  the  greatest  of 
heathen  philosophers  that  "  God  does  not  care  for 
individual  men."  But  we  see  everywhere  in  the  Bible 
that  God  does  care  for  individual  men.  Over  thirteen 
chapters  of  the  book  of  Genesis  are  taken  up  with 
the  account  of  His  dealings  with  Abraham;  with  only 
touches  here  and  there  of  contemporaneous  history, 
and  those  given  to  illustrate  more  fully  the  life  and 
character  of  the  patriarch.  Over  eight  chapters  are 
employed  for  the  career  of  Jacob,  over  twelve  for  that 
of  Joseph — thirty-three  out  of  the  fifty  of  which  the 
book  is  composed.  Joseph  is  not  brought  in  to  set 
off  the  grandeur  of  Egypt,  but  Egypt  is  introduced 
to  show  the  care  which  God  takes  of  Joseph.  One 
whole  book,  and  that  one  of  the  longest,  is  given  to 
prove  the  regard  which  God  had  for  one  man 
struggling  to  keep  his  faith  under  manifold  and  over- 
whelming afflictions.  Little  is  told  us  in  that  book 
of  the  arts,  manners  or  politics  of  that  day,  but  who 
has  not  heard  of  the  "  patience  of  Job  and  seen  the 
end  of  the  Lord,  that  the  Lord  is  very  pitiful  and 
of  tender  mercy  " ! 

So,  all  through  the  New  Testament,  how  many 
names  are  given  with  minute  relation  of  time,  place 

103 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 


and  circumstance,  of  those  whom  Jesus  instructed, 
comforted  and  healed.  Everywhere  we  see  Him  as 
a  tender  friend  and  helper,  adapting  his  ministrations 
of  mercy  to  the  special  needs  of  each  separate  one : 
*'  He  calleth  his  sheep  by  name." 

The  world  is  yet  to  be  saved  from  the  depersonal- 
izing spirit  of  industrialism,  commercialism  and  mili- 
tarism by  the  self-integrating  power  of  the  silent  life. 

PRAYER   ENDINGS 

"  For  Jesus'  sake,"  "  For  Christ's  sake,"  or,  in  am- 
plified form,  "  And  all  we  ask  and  offer  is  for  the 
sake  of  Christ  alone,"  are  quite  common  endings  of 
even  our  Protestant  pulpit  prayers. 

Right,  if  rightly  understood;  yet  open  to  the  in- 
jurious construction  of  favoring  that  conception  of 
God  which  makes  Him  to  be  but  a  sternly  avenging 
Judge  whose  righteous  wrath  would  at  once  fall  on 
sinners  but  that  the  compassionate  Jesus  steps  in 
between  us  and  God,  and  Himself  invites  and  receives 
the  stroke  of  our  deserved  retribution. 

Such  theory  of  the  atonement  would  be  paralleled 
by  the  case  of  a  criminal  who  has  been  tried,  convicted, 
and  sentenced  to  a  deserved  death,  but  for  whom 
intercession  is  made  by  the  magistrate's  favorite  son. 
"  Not  that  I  have  the  least  affection  for  this  justly 
condemned  criminal,"  says  the  magistrate ;  "  he  de- 
serves none ;  but  I  do  love  you,  my  son,  and  for  your 
sake,  and  for  your  sake  alone,  I  grant  the  pardon  you 
ask." 

104 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

Or,  as  it  really  was  with  Powhattan,  Pocahontas 
and  Capt,  John  Smith,  The  angered  chief  had  no 
love,  not  even  pity,  for  his  captured  enemy,  on  whom 
he  was  about  to  let  fall  the  death-dealing  blow.  But 
most  dearly  did  he  love  his  darling  child,  and  it  was 
for  that  love,  and  not  for  any  love  for  himself,  that 
the  prisoner's  life  was  spared. 

In  complete  and  most  comforting  oppositon  to  this 
view  the  following  Scripture  citations  show  clearly 
that  it  is  to  the  self-moved  and  self-abounding  mercy 
of  God  that  we  owe  the  thought,  purpose  and  method 
of  our  salvation. 

"  The  Lord  will  not  forsake  his  people  for  his  great 
name's  sake."     i  Sam.  12 :22. 

"  He  leadeth  me  in  paths  of  righteousness  for  his 
name's  sake."    Ps.  23  :3. 

"  Therefore,  for  thy  name's  sake,  lead  me  and  guide 
me."     Ps.  79:9. 

"  For  my  name's  sake  will  I  defer  mine  anger." 

"  For  mine  own  sake,  even  for  mine  own  sake,  will 
I  do  it."    Isa.  48:9,  II. 

"  O  Lord,  though  our  iniquities  testify  against  us, 
do  thou  it  for  thy  name's  sake."     Jer.  14:7. 

New  Testament  teaching  is  in  full  accord  with  this 
teaching  of  the  Old.  "  But  does  not  John  point  us 
to  the  baptized  Jesus  as  the  '  Lamb '  who  takes  away 
the  sin  of  the  world  ?  "  Yes,  but  He  is  the  "  Lamb 
of  God " — the  sacrifice  of  God's  own  providing. 
"  Was  it  not  Jesus  who  bore  the  iniquities  of  us  all  ?  " 
He  did  most  willingly  bear  them,  but  it  was  because 

105 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

they  were  "  laid  on  him  "  by  God — ^borne  in  obedient 
submissiveness  to  God's  will :  "  I  come  to  do  thy 
will,  O  God."  "  Is  it  not  a  faithful  saying  that  Jesus 
came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners  ?  "  But  it  is  a 
saying  no  less  worthy  of  universal  acceptation  that 
God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  and  sent  His 
Son  on  this  great  errand  of  atonement  and  recon- 
ciliation. 

Is  a  Mediator  necessary  through  whom  alone  in 
the  deep,  unsearchable  counsels  of  His  wisdom  God 
can  bestow  pardon  and  eternal  life  on  the  guilty  and 
perishing?  Yet,  who  but  He  provides  the  channel 
through  whom  these  blessings  may  be  conferred  ?  His 
"  Beloved  Son "  through  whom  comes  everlasting 
life,  no  less  than  the  life  itself,  is  the  gift  of  God  to 
the  world,  loved  by  Him  to  the  full  measure  of  so 
great  a  gift.  It  is  the  exceeding  riches  of  His  own 
grace  and  kindness  that  in  all  ages  is  shown  towards 
us  through  Christ  Jesus,  Even  the  faith  by  which 
we  receive  that  saving  grace  is  His  own  gift.  "  For 
His  name's  sake,  your  sins  are  forgiven,"  says  that 
beloved  disciple  who  declares  that  "  God  is  love." 
"  Even  as  God,  for  Christ's  sake,  hath  forgiven  you  " 
(Eph.  4:32),  is  a  mistranslation  for,  "As  God,  in 
Christ,"  and  thus  it  is  given  correctly  in  the  Revised 
Version.  "  Keep  through  thine  own  name  those  whom 
thou  hast  given  me,"  is  part  of  our  Lord's  intercessory 
prayer.  And  "  To  God  only  wise  be  glory,  through 
Jesus  Christ  forever,"  is  St.  Paul's  final  ascription 
of  glory  to  Him  to  whom  the  glory  is  due. 

106 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

I  venture  to  suggest,  therefore,  as  a  more  Scriptural 
way  of  ending  our  petitions : 

"  And  this  we  ask  for  thine  own  name's  sake, 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

A   LESSON    IN    CHRISTIAN   WARFARE 

In  order  to  win  the  happiest  success  in  Christian 
work,  there  must  be  both  unity  of  action  and  freedom 
of  action.  After  the  walls  of  Jericho  had  fallen  "  the 
people  went  up  into  the  city  every  man  straight  be- 
fore him,  and  they  took  the  city."  They  went  up  as 
one  body.  None  stayed  behind,  none  straggled,  none 
shirked.  Every  man  was  in  his  place  in  the  ranks — 
priest,  officer  and  private ;  each  in  his  own  place.  It 
was  not  by  a  select  and  privileged  few  that  the  victory 
was  won.  The  army  moved  with  one  purpose,  as 
though  it  were  one  man  animated  by  one  spirit.  Yet 
along  with  this  oneness  of  purpose  and  spirit,  there 
was  complete  personal  liberty.  All  went  up  together, 
but  every  man  went  up  "  straight  before  him  " ;  every 
man  in  his  own  path.  Every  man  had  both  foot-room 
and  elbow-room.  The  man  was  not  sunk  in  the  mass. 
Each  soldier  fought  after  his  own  fashion,  and  on  his 
own  individual  responsibility — no  crowding,  no  inter- 
ference, no  damaging  criticism ;  no  saying  of  one  to 
another,  "  You  must  grind  your  spear  exactly  as  I 
grind  mine  and  wield  it  exactly  as  I  wield  my  own." 

And  shall  one  follower  of  Christ  now  say  to  an- 
other, "  Come  under  my  form  of  church-government ; 
fall  ih  with  my  manner  of  worship  and  my  mode  of 

107 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

administering  the  ordinances,  or  I  cannot  recognize 
you  as  a  fellow-disciple  of  the  Master "  ?  As  fitly 
might  the  English  at  Sevastopol  have  said  to  their 
French  allies,  "  We  would  like  your  help  in  the  taking 
of  this  fortress,  but  we  cannot  allow  you  to  have  any 
hand  in  the  business ;  at  least,  we  cannot  give  you  any 
recognized  place  in  the  lines  of  investment  and  battle, 
unless  you  will  consent  to  exchange  your  French  gray 
for  our  English  scarlet ;  unless  you  alter  your  Chasse- 
pot  rifles  into  our  Enfields;  unless  on  your  banners 
you  emblazon  our  lion  and  unicorn  over  your  iieur- 
de-lis." 

Unhindered  by  overawing  or  needless  restrictions, 
sacrificing  cheerfully  so  much  of  what  is  peculiar  to 
himself  in  opinion  an'd  practice  as  the  best  good  of 
all  may  require,  each  hardness-enduring  soldier  of 
Christ  will  wish  to  go  up  and  help  fight  his  Lord's 
battles.  But  because  he  loves  his  brethren,  also,  he 
will  wish  for  them  what  he  desires  for  himself,  that 
each  of  them  be  allowed  to  go  up  straight  before  him, 
do  his  own  share  of  the  work,  and  win  and  receive  his 
own  due  share  of  the  reward. 

SAVING  HIMSELF  AND  HIS   HEARERS 

"  I  do  not  see,"  I  once  said  to  one  of  the  most  de- 
voted and  successful  of  our  New  England  pastors, 
"  how  you  can  stand  it  to  work  as  you  do — hold  so 
many  meetings,  do  so  much  preaching  and  pastoral 
visiting  and  so  much  marrying  and  burying  besides." 

io8 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

"Oh,"  replied  he,  "that  is  nothing;  a  minister's 
hardest  work  is  to  take  care  of  his  own  heart." 

As  much  as  to  say  that  only  a  good  instrument 
can  be  instrumental  of  good.  Would  a  man  be  a  bless- 
ing ?  he  must  first  be  blessed.  Would  he  be  the  father 
of  believers  ?  he  must  himself  believe.  David  does  not 
look  for  success  in  teaching  transgressors  God's  ways 
so  long  as  his  own  transgressions  are  not  repented  of 
and  forgiven.  It  is  by  a  true  paternity  of  faith  that 
Paul  claims  the  Corinthians  as  his  own  children  in 
Christ.  The  preacher  of  salvation  must  first  save  him- 
self. So  Paul  enjoins  Timothy:  "Take  heed  to  thy- 
self; by  so  doing  thou  shalt  save  thyself."  But  as  he 
would  save  them  that  hear  him,  he  must  also  give  heed 
to  his  "  doctrine."  He  must  continually  see  to  it  that 
he  preach  to  save. 

Only  so  much  of  his  preaching  as  abides  in  renewed 
and  sanctified  souls  will  welcome  the  preacher  in  the 
great  day  of  final  award.  Not,  "  Here  am  I  and  these 
sermons  of  mine,  sound  in  logic,  faultless  in  diction 
and  graceful  in  rhetoric";  but,  "Here  am  I  and  the 
children  whom  Thou  has  given  me." 

Then  will  be  seen  how  wide  and  impassable  is  the 
gulf  between  the  most  elaborate  discourses  which  yet 
fail  to  quicken  into  spiritual  life,  and  new-born  souls 
given  to  us  by  God  to  walk  and  talk  with  us  in  loving 
and  grateful  companionship  through  all  the  unending 
years. 


109 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 


EDDY   AND    STREAM 

Whenever  and  wherever  are  promoters  or  projec- 
tors, they  must  use  such  helpers  as  they  can  find, 
whether  the  selected  agents  are  well  adapted  to  their 
purposes  or  not. 

Hence  it  is  that  merely  human  endeavors  are  so 
often  blocked;  sometimes  by  the  dearth,  incompetency 
or  intractability  of  laborers ;  sometimes  by  the  preju- 
dice, narrow-mindedness  or  down-right  opposition  of 
those  whose  concurrence  is  indispensable  to  the  carry- 
ing on  of  the  work;  sometimes  by  natural  obstacles 
almost  insuperable;  sometimes,  as  in  the  digging  of 
the  Suez  and  Panama  Canals,  by  all  three  obstacles 
combined.  Genius,  combined  with  unconquerable  de- 
termination, may  indeed  surmount  these  difficulties, 
yet,  all  the  same,  the  difficulties  do  interfere  with  and 
delay,  even  although  they  may  not  ultimately  defeat, 
the  triumph  of  the  projector. 

Whenever  and  wherever  God  wants  a  man  for  any 
place  or  work,  He  has  but  to  make  him.  He  en- 
dows and  trains  him,  brings  him  on  the  stage  of 
action  at  exactly  the  right  moment;  then  guides  and 
sustains  him  until  his  work  is  done.  "  He  knew  who 
the  man  was  that  should  deliver  His  people  from 
Babylon,  and  called  him  by  name  scores  of  years  before 
he  was  born,  saying  of  Cyrus,  '  He  is  my  shepherd 
and  shall  perform  all  my  pleasure.' " 

The  purposes  and  plans  of  God  proceed  under  His 
wise  and  wide  survey  with  harmonious  convergency 

no 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

to  the  desired  end ;  even  as  the  Amazon  folds  in  his 
mighty  embrace  all  his  great  eddies  and  sweeps  on, 
unhindered  by  them,  to  the  sea. 

BEYOND    PERADVENTURE 

At  a  distance,  we  see  rising  from  the  threshing  and 
winnowing  floor  only  clouds  of  dust  and  chaff;  we 
hear  only  the  rumbling,  rattling  and  clattering  of 
wheels  and  shaken  sieves.  But,  on  closer  inspection, 
we  see  streaming  into  the  waiting  bags  the  life-sup- 
porting grain. 

So  it  were  but  a  narrow,  starved  and  pinched 
conception  which  would  lead  us  to  find  ever  in  the 
clamor  of  political  controversy,  in  the  darkening  of 
the  air  by  sectarian  strife,  in  the  mad  rush  and  din 
of  money-getting  greed ;  to  find  in  any  or  all  of  these 
the  slightest  ground  for  discouragement  to  effort  for 
the  promised  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  truth,  right- 
eousness, liberty  and  peace  in  all  the  earth. 

In  the  vocabulary  of  that  Kingdom  the  word 
"  crisis  "  has,  therefore,  no  place.  Critical  times  there 
have,  indeed,  been  in  battles,  sieges,  revolutions,  dynas- 
ties, governments;  in  the  history  of  this  and  that 
movement  for  civic  and  political  reform ;  of  individual 
churches,  missions,  revivals.  The  crisis  once  passed, 
there  has  come  either  progress  or  decline,  establish- 
ment or  extinction.  But  never  has  there  been,  never 
will  there  be,  an  uncertain  point  of  danger  in  the 
carrying  out  of  the  Divine  purpose  for  the  world's 
redemption. 

Ill 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 


REINTRODUCTIONS 

It  is  a  common  enough  experience  that  an  acquaint- 
ance to  whom  we  were  years  ago  first  introduced 
seems  to  us,  after  a  time,  so  changed  in  manner  or 
appearance  that  reintroduction  becomes  necessary  to 
recognition.  "  He  has  grown  so  out  of  our  knowl- 
edge "  is  our  way  of  explaining  it.  We  chide  ourselves 
for  our  obtuse  imperception,  realizing  that  the  em- 
barrassment it  has  occasioned  us  might  have  been 
avoided  had  we  been  more  discerning  of  our  friend's 
real  character,  or  had  we  followed  more  intelligently 
his  developing  purpose  and  career. 

John  had  introduced  Jesus  as  "  The  Lamb  of  God 
that  takes  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  Jesus  had 
Himself  told  His  disciples  beforehand  of  His  death  and 
resurrection  as  indispensable  to  the  accomplishing  of 
this  His  great  work.  A  more  careful  weighing  of 
this  foretelling,  and  the  two  in  their  walk  to  Emmaus 
on  that  first  Lord's  Day  afternoon  would  not  have 
talked  to  one  another  in  the  doubtful,  sad  and  fearful 
way  they  did ;  they  would  have  been  spared  that  re- 
proof from  the  unrecognized  friend  who  had  joined 
them,  "  Oh,  fools  and  slow  of  heart  to  believe  all  the 
prophets  have  spoken,"  and  they  would  not  have 
needed  the  reintroduction  he  gave  them  of  Himself 
as  their  risen  Lord  at  the  breaking  of  bread.  His 
resurrection  would  then  have  been  to  them  not  a  sur- 
prise, but  an  expected  and  joyous  fulfilment. 

Their  understanding  having  been  thus  once  opened, 

112 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

we  look  naturally  to  see  the  disciples  guard  themselves 
more  carefully  against  any  further  discounting  of  the 
promises  and  predictions  of  Jesus.  For  a  time  they 
do.  They  continue  with  one  accord  in  prayer  and 
supplication  for  the  promised  Spirit.  The  manner  of 
its  outpouring  was  more  startling  by  far  than  was  the 
manner  of  the  resurrection.  The  fact  of  the  resur- 
rection was  disclosed  with  the  utmost  quietness — 
disclosed  gradually  to  but  a  few  at  a  time.  Pentecost 
came  suddenly.  It  came  with  a  rush — a  sound  from 
heaven  as  of  a  mighty  wind.  Cloven  fiery  tongues 
appeared.  Once  it  would  have  affrighted  them  to  hear 
such  a  sudden  rushing  sound,  and  to  see  such  tongues 
of  fire,  even  had  they  been  playing  on  the  ceiling  or 
upon  the  walls  of  the  chamber  where  they  were  sitting. 
These  forked  fires  come  straight  down  from  above 
and,  sitting,  hold  their  place  upon  the  head  of  each 
of  them.  Startling  indeed !  Yet  are  they  not  in  the 
least  startled.  They  do  not  count  it  strange,  but  be- 
gin at  once  to  speak  with  other  tongues  as  the  Spirit 
gives  them  utterance.  Jesus  has  no  need  to  reintro- 
duce Himself  to  them  as  bountiful  bestower  of  wisdom 
and  power  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Recognizing  Him  as 
their  gracious  promiser  steadfastly  making  good  to  the 
full  the  utmost  that  He  has  promised,  they  begin  at 
once,  with  no  fear  of  failure,  to  speak  with  other  and 
unfamiliar  tongues  as  the  Spirit  gives  them  utterance. 
Peter's  intelligence  is  now  broadened  enough  to 
understand  the  risen  Christ  as  the  real  subject  of 
prophecy  in  the  sixteenth  Psalm;  yet  he  needs,  and 

"3 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

later  on  must  receive,  a  reintroduction  to  Jesus  as 
Saviour  of  the  Gentiles  as  well  as  of  the  Jews.  So 
tightly  closed  by  Jewish  bigotry  had  been  both  mind 
and  mouth  that  both  had  to  be  pried  open  by  special 
vision  and  command.  Only  then  could  Peter  say, 
"  Of  a  truth  I  perceive." 

Alas,  that  some  of  us  should  have  needed,  through 
our  purblind  "  slowness  of  heart  to  believe,"  so  many 
reintroductions  to  God  as  our  Father  with  all  that 
tenderest  fatherliness  implies ;  to  Jesus  as  our  loving, 
heavy-laden  cross-bearer  for  our  sin-burdened  souls, 
and  to  the  Holy  Ghost  as  our  full  and  immediate  Sanc- 
tifier  (if  only  we  will  let  Him  be),  as  our  Comforter 
under  whatever  sorrow,  and  as  our  ever-ready  and 
faithful  Guide  "  into  all  truth." 

When,  if  ever,  shall  we  take  it  to  our  very  heart  of 
hearts,  not  once  only,  but  once  for  all  and  forever,  that 
God  is  all  that  He  so  fully  declares  Himself  to  be,  that 
He  means  all  that  He  promises,  and  that  all  which 
He  has  promised  for  both  ourselves  and  the  world 
He  will,  even  to  the  uttermost,  assuredly  fulfil. 

THE  CROSS  A  SYMBOL  OF  OBEDIENCE 

In  either  the  true  son's  or  the  true  servant's  "  What 
wilt  thou  have  me  to  do,"  the  stress-word  is  "  what," 
willingness  to  obey  being  taken  for  granted,  whatever 
the  command. 

By  some  commands,  however,  the  spirit  of  obedience 
is  more  severely  tested  than  it  would  be  by  others. 
While    "  an    angel    would    obey    with    equal    alacrity, 

114 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

whether  bidden  to  sweep  a  street  or  rule  a  kingdom," 
he  might  properly  enough  prefer  the  latter,  were  it 
his  to  choose. 

The  voluntary  surrender,  if  for  a  time  only,  of 
rank,  riches  and  honor,  any  sound  mind  will,  "  if  it  be 
possible,"  avoid.  Jesus  would  gladly  have  escaped 
making  such  surrender,  if  he  could.  Had  it  only  been 
His  Father's  will.  He  would  have  had  pass  from  Him 
not  only  the  cup  of  Gethsemane  and  Calvary,  but  that 
also  of  the  Bethlehem  manger,  of  life-long  poverty  and 
dependence  and  of  the  servant's  form.  As  that  could 
not  be.  His  whole  life  from  first  to  last  was  one  con- 
tinuous act  of  most  perfect  and  willing  obedience. 

While,  therefore,  to  the  question,  "  For  what  did 
Jesus  Christ  come  into  the  world,"  we  have  for  the 
proximate  and  specific  answer,  "  To  save  sinners,"  we 
also  have  given  us,  "  To  do  the  will  of  God,"  as  that 
ultimate  and  generic  answer  which  the,  as  yet,  unin- 
carnated  Christ  Himself  prefaced  with,  "  Lo,  I  come." 

What  the  Father  did  was  to  deliver  His  Son  up  to 
the  world  that  the  world  might  do  with  Him  as  it 
would.  There  was  no  call  or  occasion  for  God  to  stir 
up  the  avarice  of  Judas,  the  scorn  of  the  elders,  the 
malice  of  the  priests,  the  time-serving  fear  of  Pilate, 
the  fury  of  the  mob,  the  zeal  of  the  soldiers  to  the 
carrying  out  of  a  familiar  decree  of  blood.  He  had 
not  to  depute  angels  to  ply  the  scourge,  plait  the  crown 
of  thorns,  put  on  the  mock  apparel,  drive  the  nails  or 
thrust  the  spear.  Men  were  at  hand  ready  enough, 
unbidden  and  untempted,  to  do  it  all — the  natural  out- 

"5 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

working  of  an  enmity  roused  to  rage  by  the  fearless 
preaching  of  God's  pure  truth  exemplified  and  con- 
firmed by  the  preacher's  sinless  life. 

To  take  one's  cross,  then,  means  the  deliberately- 
formed  determination  to  do  one's  whole  duty  at  what 
hazard  soever  and  at  whatsoever  cost — the  extremest 
hazard  possible  being  the  hazard  and  loss  of  life 
itself.  What  the  actual  cost,  no  intending  follower 
of  Jesus  can  beforehand  compute ;  whether  a  life  of 
calm  repose  or  whether  it  may  be  "  given  him  on  the 
behalf  of  Christ  not  only  to  believe  on  Him  but  also 
to  suffer  for  His  sake."  Paul  was  shown,  indeed,  what 
great  things  he  must  suffer  for  the  Master's  sake,  but 
it  was  only  little  by  little  as  he  went  along.  It  was 
denied  to  Peter  to  know  how  John's  career  was  to 
differ  from  his  own.  Alike  in  fidelity,  yet  how  unlike 
in  service  and  in  suffering — Peter  crucified ;  John 
dying  peacefully  in  his  bed  at  a  good  old  age !  We 
pledge  ourselves  "  in  blank  "  when  we  become  follow- 
ers of  Christ,  leaving  it  entirely  to  Him  to  fill  out 
the  lines,  but  ready  to  honor  whatever  drafts,  be  they 
few  or  many,  great  or  small,  which  He  may  make 
upon  us  for  either  service,  sacrifice  or  suffering. 

In  one  respect  the  obedience  of  Jesus  to  the  death 
of  the  cross  was  an  obedience  which  He  alone  could 
render.  For  while  on  the  merely  human  side  He 
came  to  his  death  as  did  Abel,  Stephen  and  Paul  to 
theirs — martyrs  alike  from  the  exasperating  goodness 
of  an  unalterable  purpose  to  do  the  will  of  God — 
yet  to  Jesus  came  a  suffering  deeper  by  far  than  that 

ii6 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

caused  by  Cain's  club,  the  witnesses'  stones  or  Nero's 
sword — the  agony  and  grief  of  a  cross  of  expiation  for 
the  world's  sin,  the  chief  anguish  of  which  lay  in 
the  hiding  from  Him  of  His  Father's  face. 

That  anguish  His  faithful  followers  are  spared.  To 
Stephen  was  vouchsafed  the  vision  denied  to  the  cruci- 
fied Christ.  While  the  stones  were  raining  on  the 
martyr's  head,  lo,  the  heavens  were  opened  and  he  saw 
Jesus  standing  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  That  which 
was  actual  to  Stephen  the  like  steadfast  faith  will 
make  virtual  to  any  and  every  obedient  child  of  God 
during  however  sorrowful  a  life,  in  however  painful 
a  death. 

OPPORTUNITY  THE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER 

The  desire  to  know  beforehand  the  character  and 
qualifications  of  those  with  whom'  we  contemplate 
having  either  social  or  business  intercourse  finds  ex- 
pression in  the  confident  boast  of  practical  phrenology. 
By  practitioners  in  this  so-called  science,  intelligence 
offices  are  opened  in  which  the  skilful  manipulator 
of  heads  offers  himself  as  an  infallible  guide  to  the 
safe  selection  of  both  intimate  companions  and  asso- 
ciates in  business.  The  attempt  is  thus  made  to  put 
prophecy  in  the  place  of  probation,  and,  by  so  doing, 
to  revolutionize  the  world-old  method  for  the  deter- 
mination of  character,  endowment  and  adaptation. 
However  sincere  the  attempt,  it  is  both  futile  and  mis- 
leading. For  the  clear  ascertaining  of  such  mental  and 
moral  values,  the  actual  conduct  of  life  is  the  only 

117 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

accurately  weighing  instrument.  Opportunity  is  the 
one  true  test;  the  seeing  how  any  man  does  what 
it  is  given  him  to  do.  In  every  home,  office,  shop, 
store,  school  of  learning,  hall  of  legislation,  are  poised 
invisible  scales  by  which  are  silently  weighed  husband 
and  wife,  father  and  mother,  child,  brother  and  sister, 
merchant  and  clerk,  capitalist  and  laborer,  teacher  and 
pupil,  law-maker,  judge  and  executive  official.  By 
improvement,  misimprovement  or  non-improvement 
of  afforded  opportunity  is  each  probationer  both  tried 
and  made.  Antecedent  demonstration  is  altogether 
out  of  the  question.  Until  thus  tested  the  probationer 
does  not  himself  know  just  what  manner  of  man  he 
is.  Whether  it  be  in  the  home  or  in  business,  the 
men  and  the  women  who,  year  after  year,  make  a 
failure  of  life  are  as  much  an  astonishment  to  them- 
selves as  they  are  to  their  acquaintances  and  friends. 
In  this  present  life  of  ours  in  this  way  tested  may 
be  seen  as  in  a  mirror  the  life  that  is  to  come.  The 
fleeting  fashion  of  this  world  becomes  the  fixed  fashion 
of  the  next.  In  this  present  scene  of  things  is  enclosed 
the  germ  of  that  spiritual  kingdom  whose  issues  tak^ 
hold  on  eternity — those  principles  of  moral  order 
which  must  determine  each  man's  place  in  the  coming 
world.  Our  proneness  to  dangerous  familiarity  with 
the  opportunities  and  momentous  possibilities  of  the 
everyday  life  we  are  now  living,  gives  startling  sig- 
nificance to  the  Master's  words,  "  Notwithstanding,  be 
ye  sure  of  this  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  come 
nigh  unto  you."    In  the  different  courses  and  charac- 

ii8 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

ters  here  taken  and  formed  one  sees  the  finger  of  God 
pointing  silently  to  the  awards  of  eternity.  We  mis- 
take if  we  think  of  the  "  day  of  judgment "  as  the 
weighing  day.  That  day  is  simply  the  day  for  de- 
claring the  result  of  this  earthly  trial  and  assigning 
to  each  man  that  "  place  "  which  he  has  already  made 
"  his  own  " ;  his  final  answer  to  the  question  asked 
day  by  day  of  his  earthly  life  now  ended,  "  Will  this 
man  glorify  the  God  in  whose  hand  his  breath  is  and 
whose  are  all  his  ways?" 

THE   WEIGHING   OF   A    KING 

Risen  at  length  by  inheritance  to  the  throne  of  a 
great  empire,  a  monarch  has  presented  to  him  the  pos- 
sibility, through  right  ruling,  of  such  usefulness  and 
renown  as  even  Gabriel  might  envy.  Will  he  see  this 
path  of  honorable  fame,  and,  so  seeing,  will  he  follow 
it?  Will  he  stand  at  attention  before  the  Muse  of  His- 
tory as,  pointing  to  an  as  yet  unsullied  page,  she  bids 
him  fill  it  with  a  record  of  noble  deeds  ?  Will  he  heed 
those  purer  promptings  of  his  nature  which  counsel 
him  to  live  not  selfishly  for  his  own,  but,  self-sacri- 
ficingly,  for  his  people's  good?  Not  for  a  few  years 
of  ignoble  pleasure,  but  for  an  age-long  term  of  worth- 
iest recompense  ?  Will  he  be  instructed  by  the  example 
of  his  discrowned  father  who  for  his  self-idolizing 
pride  was  smitten  with  lunacy,  stripped  of  his  royal 
robes,  driven  from  the  sons  of  men,  his  heart  grown 
to  be  like  the  heart  of  a  beast,  his  dwelling  with  the 
wild  asses,  fed  with  grass  like  oxen,  and  his  body  wet 

119 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

with  the  dews  of  heaven,  until  he  should  understand 
that  the  Most  High  God  ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of  men 
and  that  He  appointeth  over  it  whomsoever  He  will? 
Will  he  be  a  true  minister  of  God,  a  terror  always 
to  evil  works  but  never  to  the  good?  Will  he  devise 
only  equal  and  just  laws  and  be  firm  and  impartial  in 
their  execution? 

Here  is  one  path  bright  and  glorious;  sure  to  shine 
more  brightly  and  gloriously  to  the  very  end  of  how- 
ever prolonged  a  reign. 

Sadly  enough,  however,  there  is  this  other  and 
wholly  unlike  path.  His  throne  may  be  the  seat  of 
pride  and  obstinate  self-will.  Conceiving  himself  to 
be  raised  above  that  strict  accountability  to  which 
men  of  lower  place  and  blood  are  held,  he  may  drink 
in  the  flattery  which  is  sure  to  whisper  that  the  throned 
heir  of  so  vast  an  empire  need,  in  shaping  his  course, 
neither  to  fear  God  or  to  regard  man.  Taking  no 
counsel  but  of  his  own  passions  and  caprices,  he  may 
become  insolently  despotic  and  cruelly  vindictive ;  may 
abuse  his  power  of  patronage  to  gratify  personal  favor- 
itisms  and  revenges,  calling  around  him  only  such 
self-seeking  advisers  as  shall  keep  him  undisturbed, 
both  by  the  wrongs,  miseries  and  protests  of  his  people, 
and  by  the  hidden  dangers  which  menace  the  stability 
of  his  throne. 

Which  path  will  this  monarch  choose?  The  two 
choices  are  the  balances  in  which  he  is  to  be  weighed 
and  by  which  is  to  be  found  and  declared  what  manner 
of  man  he  is  in  his  inmost  heart.    During  the  seventeen 

120 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

years  of  his  reign  the  long-suffering  Arbiter  holds 
patiently  aloft  the  trembling  scales.  Now  strikes  the 
hour  when  the  Weigher  lowers  the  beam.  The  weigh- 
ing is  ended,  the  unimproved  opportunity  is  irrecover- 
ably gone.  This  last  banquet  of  idolatrous  mirth  fills 
at  once  the  measure  of  God's  forbearance  and  of  the 
monarch's  guilt.  No  sooner  is  the  Hand  which  has 
so  long  held  the  balance  disengaged  from  that  secret 
task,  than  it  comes  forth  and  writes  over  against  the 
candlestick  upon  the  plaster  of  the  wall  of  the  King's 
palace : 

"Weighed  and  Found  Wanting." 

After  the  weighing,  the  finding.  After  the  finding, 
the  marking.  After  the  marking,  the  irreversible 
doom :  "  In  that  night  was  Belshazzar  slain,  and  Da- 
rius, the  Median,  took  the  kingdom." 

PAUL'S  QUARREL  WITH  PETER 

Taking  all  the  goodness  out  of  the  "  good  news  " 
of  salvation  by  grace  alone  is  the  heresy  against  which 
Paul  warns  his  Galatian  brethren  and  ito  which  he 
charges  Peter  with  having  once  lent  the  sanction  of 
his  apostolic  example. 

"  You  know,"  writes  he,  in  effect,  "  how  I  once 
fairly  hated  the  word  '  Christian ' ;  how  mad,  how 
exceedingly  mad,  it  made  me  to  hear  it  spoken ;  how 
fiercely  I  fought  it;  how  I  persecuted  and  wasted  the 
church  of  God.  But  when  it  pleased  God,  out  of 
mercy  to  my  ignorant  unbelief,  to  show  me  the  awful 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

mistake  I  was  making  by  revealing  His  Son  to  me 
and  in  me,  I  began  forthwith  to  be  as  zealous  for 
Christ  as  I  had  before  been  against  him.  Not  only 
did  I  not  ask  authority  or  permission  of  those  who 
were  apostles  before  me;  I  kept  wholly  aloof  from 
them ;  acting  as  I  did  under  orders  received  directly 
from  Christ  himself.  It  was  three  years  before  I 
even  went  up  to  Jerusalem,  and  when  I  did  go,  the 
only  apostles  I  saw  there  were  Peter  and  James,  the 
Lord's  brother.  With  the  work  they  were  doing  in 
the  home  field  I  did  not  interfere ;  did  not  even  show 
myself  to  the  churches  of  Judea.  All  they  knew 
about  me  was  that  I  was  now  earnestly  engaged  in 
preaching  the  faith  which  once  I  destroyed. 

"  It  was  full  fourteen  years  before  I  visited  Jeru- 
salem again.  Then  I  told  them  the  kind  of  free  gospel 
I  was  preaching  to  the  Gentiles.  I  told  it  to  only 
the  leading  men  there,  and  to  them  in  the  quietest 
way  possible,  as  I  did  not  wish  to  have  my  work  hin- 
dered by  unnecessarily  antagonizing  their  Jewish 
prejudices.  By  this  prudence  I  so  carried  my  point 
that  although  Titus,  who  was  with  me,  was  a  Greek, 
they  did  not  compel  him  to  be  circumcised.  The  re- 
sult was  that  the  false  brethren  who  come  in  on  the 
sly  to  spy  out  our  liberty  which  we  have  in  Christ, 
and  to  bring  us  into  bondage,  could  make  no  headway 
against  us. 

"  It  was  some  time  after  this  that  I  had  my  first 
and  only  quarrel  with  Peter.  He  had  come  down  to 
Antioch  where  I  then  was.    At  first,  he  did  as  I  did; 

122 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

kept  company  with  some  who  were  not  Jews  and  even 
ate  with  them  at  the  same  table.  He  knew,  as  well 
as  I  did,  that  there  was  nothing  wrong  about  that. 
In  a  way,  he  knew  it  better  than  I  did.  He  had  been 
favored  with  the  special  vision  of  the  great  sheet 
knit  at  the  four  corners  and  let  down  to  the  earth, 
and  word  from  God  to  tell  him  what  it  meant — ^the 
vision  and  word  which  made  him  so  prompt  for  the 
day's  journey  to  Cesarea  to  tell  the  inquiring  Cen- 
turion what  he  ought  to  do.  '  You  know,'  he  said, 
'  that  it  is  an  unlawful  thing  for  a  Jew  to  keep  com- 
pany or  come  to  one  of  another  nation,  but  God  has 
showed  me  that  I  should  not  call  any  man  common  or 
unclean.'  In  spite  of  that,  there  were  some  so  in- 
tensely Jewish  as  to  have  censured  Peter  for  doing 
at  Antioch  what  he  had  done  freely  at  Cesarea. 
Lingers  still  in  the  apostle  some  of  the  old  timidity 
which  led  him  thrice  to  deny  his  Lord  in  the  judgment 
hall  of  Pilate.  So  afraid  is  he  to  have  those  whom 
James  had  sent  down  to  Antioch  see  on  what  easy  and 
familiar  terms  he  is  living  with  outcast  Gentiles,  that 
he  withdraws  and  separates  himself  from  them. 
When  I  saw  this,  and  saw,  too,  how  other  Jews,  and 
even  Barnabas,  were  carried  away  with  this  dis- 
simulation, I  could  not  let  such  a  cowardly  com- 
promising of  the  truth  go,  and  I  keep  still.  Loyalty 
to  Christ  and  His  gospel  compelled  me  to  speak  out, 
and  I  rebuked  Peter  sharply  and  openly.  I  said  to 
him  before  them  all,  '  If  you,  a  Jew,  live  as  do  the 
Gentiles,  why  do  you  compel  the  Gentiles  to  live  as 

123 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

do  the  Jews?  Jews,  as  you  and  I  are,  we  are  now 
enlightened  enough  to  know  that  a  man  is  not  justified 
by  the  works  of  the  law,  but  by  the  faith  of  Jesus 
Christ.  For  my  part,  I  am  ready  to  say  always,  and 
everywhere,  that  this  grace,  this  gift  of  God,  through 
His  Son,  is  my  sole  reliance  for  pardon  and  salvation. 
I  do  not  frustrate  this  grace ;  do  not  set  it  aside,  and 
so  dishonor  it  by  putting  a  particle  of  trust  in  any- 
thing else  whatsoever.' " 

NOT   A   HOOF   BEHIND" 

After  the  plague  of  flies,  Pharaoh  proposed  a  com- 
promise. The  Hebrews  might  go  and  sacrifice  to  their 
God,  provided  they  would  not  in  so  doing  leave  the 
king's  country. 

"  No,"  came  the  prompt  answer,  "  we  must  be  al- 
lowed to  go  as  far  and  in  whatever  direction  we 
choose — out  into  the  wilderness,  a  good  three  days' 
journey  at  least." 

"  In  that  case,"  the  king  said  stiffly,  "  you  shall  not 
go  at  all." 

After  the  plague  of  the  hail,  however,  he  yielded 
enough  to  say,  "  Well,  then,  name  your  terms.  How 
many  of  you  are  going  ?  " 

"  Young  and  old,  sons  and  daughters,  flocks  and 
herds;  we  are  all  going,"  was  Moses'  frank  and  bold 
reply. 

"  That  will  I  never  consent  to.  I  will  do  this, 
though :  I  will  meet  you  half-way.  I  will  grant  what  I 
understood  was  all  you  asked  for  at  the  first.     You 

124 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

men  may  go,  but  the  women  and  children  must  stay. 
That  is  my  last  word." 

Locusts  and  three  days  of  pitchy  darkness;  then 
from  the  king  a  "  hurry  "  call  for  the  two  commis- 
sioners ;  "  I  will  meet  you  more  than  half-way.  Go, 
little  ones  and  all ;  you  need  leave  only  your  flocks  and 
herds." 

"  No  compromise,"  demands  the  man  of  God.  "  No 
meeting  half-way ;  you  must  come  all  the  way  to  meet 
us.  '  Unconditional  surrender '  is  the  word.  Our 
cattle  must  go  too — every  one  of  them.  Not  a  hoof 
shall  be  left  behind.     It  is  all  or  nothing." 

"  All  or  nothing  "  is  the  demand  and  rightful  claim 
of  Jesus.  No  half  surrenders,  no  nine-tenths,  no 
ninety  -  nine  -  hundredths  compromises.  Those  who 
came  to  him  hoping  for  easier  terms  without  exception 
failed  to  find  them.  He  at  once  discouraged  the 
would-be  follower  who  wanted  first  to  be  assured  that 
his  following  would  not  in  the  end  leave  him  worse 
off  than  the  fox  without  a  hole  or  the  bird  without  a 
nest.  To  another  and  yet  another  on  the  same  occa- 
sion the  Master  said,  "  If  you  propose  following  me, 
it  must  be  without  any  '  ifs  '  or  '  buts  ' ;  even  though 
one  '  but '  be,  '  Let  me  first  go  and  bury  my  father ' ; 
and  another,  '  Let  me  go  first  and  bid  farewell  to 
them  that  are  at  home  at  my  house.' "  The  furrow 
once  started,  no  withdrawing  the  hand  from  the  plow 
until  the  furrow  is  finished. 

That  husband  or  father  who  reverses  the  terms  of 
Pharaoh's  proposed  compromise  and  says,  "  Yes,  my 

125 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

wife  and  my  children  may  join  the  Lord's  pilgrim 
band  and  welcome,"  while  himself  hanging  back,  will 
find  that  no  such  family  concession  is  accepted  by 
the  Master  in  lieu  of  his  own  personal  following.  It 
was  finding  that  he  could  not  consecrate  himself  to 
Jesus  unless  he  at  the  same  time  consecrated  his 
"  great  possessions  "  that  caused  the  rich  young  man 
to  go  away  sorrowful. 

No,  "  not  a  hoof  behind."  Along  with  that  which 
is  most  precious — our  purest  and  deepest  affections — 
we  must  also  bring  as  a  willing  sacrifice  to  Jesus  that 
which  is  least  and  lowest ;  all  that  pertains  to  even  our 
mere  animal  nature — so  to  eat  and  drink  that  with  the 
temple  of  our  bodies  we  may  best  glorify  God. 

"  A  prophet  like  unto  me."  In  nothing  was  Jesus 
more  like  Moses  than  in  thus  demanding  that  our 
whole  manhood ;  that  families,  that  nations,  that  all 
our  business  and  all  our  gains  should  accept  without 
reserve  his  provided  and  offered  deliverance  from  the 
bondage  of  the  world's  sin,  to  be  brought  into  the 
glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 

FROM    ABEL   TO   ZACHARIAS 

No  allowed  disadvantage  of  having  ill-dispositioned 
and  ill-behaving  parents  compels  or  justifies  like  bad 
disposition  and  behavior  in  the  child.  What  the  child 
should  do,  when  old  enough  to  think,  know,  decide 
and  act  for  himself,  is  to  disown  the  parental  wrong- 
doing and  himself  lead  a  right  and  true  life.  If,  on 
the  contrary,  he  of  free  choice  acquiesce  in  and  con- 

126 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

tinue  the  wrong-doing,  then  to  that  personal  demerit 
he  adds  that  of  this  evil  descent.  Voluntary  adoption 
is  a  stronger  judicial  bond  than  is  involuntary  in- 
heritance. The  longer  the  ancestral  chain  of  approved 
and  continued  transgression,  the  more  firmly  it  binds. 
The  son  who  deliberately  walks  in  parental  and  pre- 
parental  unlawful  ways  assumes  liability  for  their 
accumulated  penalty.  This  gives  point  to  that  terri- 
ble denunciation  of  Jesus  against  the  oppressors  and 
persecutors  of  His  day,  that  the  blood  of  all  the 
prophets  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  "  from  the 
blood  of  Abel  unto  the  blood  of  Zacharias,"  should 
be  required  of  that  generation. 

"  Visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the 
children  "  means  simply  this :  that  when  the  children 
decide  to  make  a  family  matter  of  iniquity,  God  can 
do  no  otherwise  than  decree  to  make  a  family  matter 
of  the  punishment. 

No  descendant  of  Adam,  then,  will  be  punished 
for  Adam's  disobedience  unless  he  show  his  approval 
of  that  disobedience  by  a  like  disobedient  life.  Our 
being  "  children  of  wrath  by  nature "  is  reckoned 
against  us  only  as  we  ourselves  "  walk  according  to 
the  course  of  this  world,"  fulfilling  by  our  own  volun- 
tary choice  the  desires  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  dis- 
obedient mind. 

How  kind  the  invitation,  how  reasonable  the  re- 
quirement, how  indispensable  the  condition :  "  Where- 
fore come  out  from  among  them  and  be  ye  separate, 
saith  the  Lord ;  and  I  will  receive  you,  and  will  be 

127 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

a  Father  to  you,  and  ye  shall  be  my  sons  and  daugh- 
ters, saith  the  Lord  Almighty." 

SELF-HARMING   HASTE. 

Paul  and  wSilas  were  fortunately  a  little  too  quick 
for  their  despairing  prison-keeper.  A  second  or  two 
more  and  he  would  have  made  out  of  his  own  heart 
a  new  and  bloody  sheath  for  his  drawn  sword.  Seeing 
the  prison-doors  open  and  supposing,  naturally  enough, 
that  his  prisoners  had  escaped,  he  knew  that  in  the 
eye  of  the  law  he  was  already  as  good  as  dead.  Paul 
and  Silas  knew  it,  too.  They  would  recall  the  old 
Hebrew  usage  illustrated  by  the  soldier  who  said,  on 
delivering  a  prisoner  whom  he  had  taken  in  battle 
to  a  fellow-soldier :  "  Keep  this  man ;  if  by  any  means 
he  be  missing,  then  thy  life  shall  be  for  the  life  of 
him  " ;  as  also  by  what  Jehu  said  to  the  eighty  men 
appointed  to  keep  guard  over  the  worshippers  of  Baal : 
"  If  any  of  the  men  whom  I  have  brought  into  your 
hands  escape,  he  that  letteth  him  go,  his  life  shall  be 
for  the  life  of  him." 

As  for  the  Roman  law,  the  Philippian  jailer  had 
every  reason  to  expect  the  like  fate  with  that  of 
the  sixteen  soldiers  whom  Herod  a  few  years  before 
had  ordered  put  to  death  for  allowing  their  prisoner, 
Peter,  to  escape.  His  own  case,  indeed,  seemed  the 
more  hopeless  of  the  two — punishment  of  Paul  and 
Silas  having  been  demanded  by  the  popular  fury 
aroused  against  them  by  the  owners  of  the  damsel 

128 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

out  of  whom,  the  day  before,  Paul  had  cast  an  evil 
spirit  of  divination ;  so  fierce  the  mob  that  the  mag- 
istrates, waiving  the  customary  formalities  of  trial, 
had  ordered  them,  having  first  been  scourged,  to  be 
guarded  with  the  utmost  vigilance  in  prison.  What- 
ever milder  views  the  jailer  may  himself  have  taken 
of  the  alleged  offence,  his  stern  sense  of  official  duty 
left  him  no  choice.  It  was,  we  may  reasonably  con- 
clude, out  of  no  "  gratuitous  inhumanity,"  but  in 
simple  obedience  to  his  instructions,  that  he  thrust  the 
two  men  into  the  inner  prison  and  made  their  feet 
fast  in  stocks. 

The  earthquake  throb  of  Christ's  rewarding  love 
which  brought  joy  to  his  two  steadfast  servants  filled 
the  jailer  with  despair.  There  was  everything  to 
heighten  his  dismay — the  seismic  shock,  the  bewilder- 
ment which  attends  being  wakened  from  the  first 
sound  sleep  of  the  night;  the  darkness,  and,  worst 
of  all,  his  seeing  by  the  light  he  had  called  for  that 
the  prison-doors  were  open,  compelling  instant  belief 
that  the  prisoners  whom  he  had  been  so  strictly 
charged  to  keep  had  fled.  Fully  aware  that  no  ex- 
planation or  apology  would  avail  him,  in  afTright  and 
despair  he  foresaw  awaiting  him  only  certain  and 
sfjeedy  death.  With  the  stern  stoicism^  of  a  true 
Roman,  he  at  once  unsheathed  his  sword,  resolved 
to  avert  from  himself  and  from  his  friends  the  dis- 
grace, at  least,  of  a  public  execution. 

For  such  self-destruction  the  jailer's  way  was,  ethi- 
cally speaking,  easy  and  open.     His  conscience  was 

129 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

not  of  a  kind  to  make  him  afraid.  Being  but  a  Gentile, 
he  had  none  of  those  sixth-commandment  scruples 
which  would  have  restrained  a  Jew.  As  for  Roman 
sentiment,  there  had  been  no  occasion  to  fortify  him- 
self beforehand  by  defiant  membership  in  some  city 
"  suicide  club."  That  sentiment,  as  voiced  by  earlier 
and  later  philosophers,  was  on  his  side.  "  The  ancient 
sage,"  said  Chrysippus,  "  had  the  consciousness  of 
an  invincible  mind  within,  which  placed  him  above 
the  power  of  fate.  He  was  conscious  of  an  entire 
equality  in  moral  elevation  with  Jupiter  himself.  He 
was  master  of  his  own  life  and  might  take  it  when- 
ever he  found  that  he  could  no  longer  live  in  a  man- 
ner worthy  of  himself.  On  this  principle  many  noble 
Romans  acted,  not  only  when  they  wished  to  escape 
from  the  ignominy  of  despotism,  but  also  when  dis- 
ease cramped  their  powers  and  rendered  life  insup- 
portable." The  case  is  cited  of  a  man  of  threescore 
and  seven  lying  under  an  incurable  disease  who, 
when  his  physician  wished  him  to  take  nourishment, 
dismissed  the  doctor  with  the  word,  "  My  mind  is 
made  up ;  "  upon  which  Pliny  remarks,  "  I  admire 
the  spirit  of  the  old  man  and  wish  I  possessed  it." 

It  was  the  teaching  of  Pliny  that  "Among  the  great 
evils  of  our  earthly  existence  the  greatest  good  which 
God  has  bestowed  on  man  is  the  power  of  taking 
his  own  life,"  and  it  was  in  this  prevailing  temper  of 
sadness  mixed  with  cold  resignation  that  he  encoun- 
tered and  fell  a  victim  to  the  flames  of  Vesuvius. 

Seneca  maintained  that  ''The  eternal  law  has  made 
130 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

nothing  better  for  us  than  this,  that  it  has  given  us 
only  one  way  of  entering  into  Hfe,  but  many  ways 
of  going  out  of  it.  .  .  .  If  thy  mind  then  be 
melancholy  and  in  misery,  thou  mayest  put  a  period 
to  this  wretchedness.  Wherever  thou  lookest,  there 
is  an  end  to  it.  Seest  thou  that  precipice?  There 
thou  mayest  have  liberty.  Seest  thou  that  lake,  that 
river,  that  well?  Liberty  is  at  the  bottom  of  them. 
Seest  thou  that  little  tree?  Freedom  hangs  upon  it. 
Thy  own  neck,  yea,  every  vein  in  thy  body  may  be 
a  refuge  to  thee  from  such  servitude." 

A  few  years  only  had  elapsed  since  this  stoical  phi- 
losophy had  been  exemplified  by  the  death  of  two 
of  Rome's  noblest  sons  on  that  very  spot.  After  the 
victory  of  the  imperial  army  under  Anthony  and 
Octavius  in  the  battle  at  Philippi,  Brutus  and  Cassius, 
who  had  staked  the  Republic  on  that  single  engage- 
ment, both  perished  by  throwing  themselves  on  their 
swords,  escaping  thus  an  ignominy  they  could  neither 
avert  nor  bear  by  "  flying  with  their  hands  when  no 
longer  able  to  fly  with  their  feet."  To  these  examples 
of  desperate  determination  this  Philippian  jailer  is 
about  to  add  another,  but  that  instantly  the  tables 
are  turned.  The  warden  is  now  become  the  ward. 
The  two  men  whom  he  has  been  keeping  from  mob 
violence  are  now  to  keep  him  from  self-violence  and 
self-destruction.  Seeing  his  forlorn  and  desperate 
purpose,  Paul  cries  out  with  a  loud  voice  and  just  in 
time  to  prevent  the  fatal  stroke,  "  Do  thyself  no  harm, 
for  we  are  all  here." 

131 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

Another  marvel  in  this  scene  of  wonders — prisoners 
declining  to  be  rescued  and,  in  place  of  killing  the 
guard,  preventing  the  guard  from  killing  himself. 
Bent  a  moment  ago  on  destroying  himself,  the  jailer 
is  now  all  anxiety  to  know  how  he  shall  save  himself; 
not  for  this  world,  but  for  that  other  world  into  which, 
all  unprepared,  he  was  about  to  plunge.  "  Sirs,  what 
shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ? "  is  the  question  which  he 
instinctively  feels  that  these  two  wonderful  men  can 
answer. 

When  morning  came,  on  what  a  scene  did  it  dawn ! 
Not  on  a  suicide's  ghastly  death-wound ;  not  on  a 
widowed  mother  and  fatherless  children ;  not  on  souls 
shrouded  still  in  heathen  doubt  and  hopelessness; 
but  upon  a  household  of  truth-enlightened,  believing, 
baptized,  saved  and  rejoicing  disciples  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

To  be  on  our  guard  against  either  hasty  utterance 
or  act  in  time  of  sudden  distress  or  danger;  to  re- 
member that,  bad  as  things  are,  they  may  not  be 
nearly  as  bad  as  they  seem ;  to  bear  in  mind  that 
the  "  unknown  being  always  the  region  of  terror," 
discouragements  look  more  discouraging  when  seen 
through  discouraged  eyes;  that  things  may  be  just 
ready  to  brighten  when  they  look  the  darkest;  never 
to  forget  the  wrong  of  resorting  to  any  rash,  des- 
perate, dishonest,  doubtful  or  self-harming  expedient 
for  obtaining  relief ;  to  know  that  "  God  will  not  have 
us  break  into  His  council-house  or  spy  out  His  hidden 
mysteries,"  but  that  we  must  wait  His  time  with  watch- 

132 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

ing  and  prayer — such  are  the  lessons  embodied  for 
us  in  the  Philippian  story. 

To  a  man  bereft  at  a  stroke  of  property,  children, 
and  health,  a  foolish  woman  once  said,  tauntingly, 
"  What  of  your  God  now  ?  Curse  him,  and  then  die 
and  be  done  with  it."  The  man  did  better.  He  gave 
to  the  world,  instead,  a  world-old  and  much-needed 
lesson  on  the  happiness  of  enduring.  By  reason  of 
it  all  the  generations  since  have  heard  of  and  seen 
two  things  which  it  would  have  been  an  unspeakable 
loss  to  have  missed — "  The  patience  of  Job  and  the 
end  of  the  Lord." 

What  the  Lord's  beginnings  may  be  with  us  in  this 
world  matters  comparatively  little  since,  as  both  Job 
and  the  jailer  found,  His  "  end  "  shows  Him  to  be 
"  very  pitiful  and  of  tender  mercy." 

OUR   ONE    CONCERN 

These  seven  disciples  are  now  at  a  standstill,  know- 
ing not  whither  to  go  or  what  to  do.  For  the  three 
years  past  all  has  been  plain.  They  have  been  doing 
their  work  under  the  immediate  direction  and  super- 
vision of  the  Master.  But,  although  He  has  twice 
appeared  to  them  since  His  resurrection.  He  has  given 
them  no  instructions  as  to  future  service.  Has  their 
apostolic  commission,  then,  expired?  If  so,  will  it 
be  renewed,  and  when?  The  over-strenuous  Peter 
is  impatient  of  delay.  He  will  do  what  he  can.  He 
will  go  back  to  his  useful  though  humble  pre-apos- 
tolic  work.    Until  there  are  again  more  men  to  catch, 

133 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

he  will  again  catch  fish.  He  does  not  say  tentatively, 
"  Suppose  we  go  a-fishing,  then  ?  "  "I  am  going," 
he  says,  in  his  bold,  independent  fashion.  The  six 
falling  in,  they  all  start  together  for  the  lake,  pull 
out  from  shore,  drop  anchor  and  cast  the  net.  Mak- 
ing no  catch,  they  row,  anchor  and  cast  again.  They  try 
their  luck  in  this  place  and  that,  but  without  success. 
Undisciplined  landsmen  would  have  given  up  in  dis- 
gust; would  have  tumbled  the  limp  net  into  the  boat, 
pulled  straight  to  shore  and  scattered  to  their  homes 
long  before  midnight.  Not  so  with  these  seven  ex- 
perienced fishermen.  Too  well  they  know  the  fickle- 
ness of  their  craft  to  think  of  farming  the  sea  as  the 
farmer  farms  his  fields.  With  the  fisherman's  pro- 
verbial patience  they  toil  through  the  entire  night  till 
the  stars  fade  and  the  east  reddens  with  the  dawn. 

Now,  looking  shoreward,  they  see  a  stranger  stand- 
ing there  near  the  water's  edge.  He  calls  aloud  to  ask 
whether  they  have  anything  on  board  for  a  breakfast. 
"  No,  we  have  toiled  all  night,  but  have  taken  noth- 
ing." "  Cast  on  the  right  side  of  the  boat  and  you 
shall  find."  No  sooner  does  the  net  now  settle  and 
spread  than  they  find  it  dropped  into  a  school  of  fishes 
— so  full,  directly,  that  they  cannot  pull  it  in — not  to 
be  drawn  but  dragged. 

John  has  his  hands  on  the  ropes  of  the  net  with 
the  hands  of  the  rest;  but  no  sooner  does  he  feel  the 
weight  and  motion  of  the  darting  and  struggling  prey 
than  a  new  thought  strikes  him.  Casting  a  searching 
glance  at  the  stranger  on  the  beach,  in  a  quick,  eager 

134 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

undertone  he  says  to  Peter,  "  It  is  the  Lord !  "  John 
is  the  first  to  see,  but  Peter  is  the  first  to  act.  "  What ! 
the  Lord,  my  Lord,  my  kind,  forbearing,  forgiving 
Master!  This  is  now  the  third  time  He  has  come 
to  see  me  since  His  resurrection,  and  not  a  word, 
not  a  look  or  slightest  hint  has  He  given  me  about 
my  sleeping  in  that  sorrowful  garden,  or  about  my 
following  Him  afar  off  when  His  enemies  were  lead- 
ing Him  away,  or  about  my  again  and  again  denying 
that  He  was  any  friend  or  even  acquaintance  of  mine." 
No  sooner  does  he  catch  John's  words,  "  It  is  the 
Lord,"  than  he  lets  go  the  net,  snatches  up  his  coat 
from  the  bottom  of  the  boat,  throws  it  on,  leaps  into 
the  sea,  now  swimming  and  now  wading  to  shore, 
leaving  the  six  to  bring  in  the  loaded  net  as  best  they 
can,  while  he  hastens  to  look  once  more  into  those 
dear  eyes  whose  glance  of  mingled  pity,  reproof  and 
love  in  the  judgment  hall  there  broke  his  unsteadfast 
heart  and  sent  him  out  alone  in  the  darkness,  weeping 
bitterly. 

If  Peter  has  a  lurking  dread  lest  that  sorrowful  and 
reproachful  look  may  now  be  repeated,  he  is  not  long 
in  discovering  that  such  fear  is  groundless — equally  so 
if  he  has  feared  lest,  although  Jesus  may  forgive.  He 
will  never  again  take  back  as  a  trusted  friend  one  who 
had  proved  faithless  in  the  hour  of  such  extreme  trial. 

We,  alas,  who  are  ourselves  so  very  imperfect,  count 
it  magnanimity  if  we  go  so  far  only  as  to  say  of  one 
who  has  once  shown  himself  inconstant,  "  Yes,  I  for- 
give him,  but  I  can  never  again  trust  him."     Poor, 

135 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

pitiable  magnanimity !  Not  so  Jesus  to  his  once  weak 
and  erring  disciple.  He  not  only  freely  forgives  him, 
He  gives  him  again  his  freest  and  fullest  confidence. 
He  trusts  and  honors  him  just  as  completely  as  though 
Peter  had  never  deserted  and  denied  Him.  Jesus  does 
indeed  in  the  most  delicate  way  awaken  Peter's  grief 
by  thrice  asking,  "  Lovest  thou  me  ?  "  but  when  comes 
the  appealing  answer,  "  Lord,  thou  knowest  that  I 
love  thee,"  the  appeal  is  at  once  followed  by  the  thrice- 
given  renewal  of  his  apostolic  commission,  "  Feed  my 
sheep  " — at  the  same  time  foretelling  for  him  a  life 
of  faithful  service  to  be  crowned  at  its  close  with  the 
glory  of  martyrdom. 

We  cannot  doubt  that  Peter  was  given  this  pre- 
diction as  a  needed  check  to  his  naturally  too  impetu- 
ous and  self-confident  disposition.  The  chastened 
spirit  with  which  he  now  follows  the  Master  is  in 
striking  contrast  with  his  once  forward  boast, 
"  Though  all  should  forsake  and  deny  thee,  yet  will 
not  I."  Methinks  he  is  now  saying  to  himself,  "  Yes, 
my  Lord  is  taking  me  at  my  old  word.  I  said  that 
I  would  die  for  him  and  to  that  test  it  seems  I  am  one 
day  to  be  brought."  And  feeling  now  his  weakness 
more  deeply  than  ever  before,  we  are  sure  of  the 
unalterable  longing  with  which  his  heart  goes  out  for 
that  steadfast  strength  which  shall  keep  him  hence- 
forth unswervingly  true  and  loyal  to  the  end. 

We  see,  too,  how  entirely  natural  it  is  that  on 
turning  round  and  seeing  John,  he  should  ask,  "  Lord, 
and  what  shall  this  man  do?     Thou  hast  appointed 

136 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

for  me  the  life  by  which  I  am  to  prove  my  love  for 
thee  and  the  death  by  which  I  am  to  glorify  God.  What 
is  his  work  and  his  end  to  be?  Shall  we  who  have 
alike  enjoyed  privileged  companionship  with  thee, 
who  were  together  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration 
and  at  the  Resurrection-tomb,  share  also  the  martyr's 
doom,  or  must  I  alone  be  carried  whither  I  would 
not?" 

This  concern  of  Peter  about  the  future  of  John 
our  Lord  sharply  reproves :  "  If  I  will  that  he  tarry 
till  I  come,  what  is  that  to  thee?    Follow  thou  me." 

Stumble  over  it  as  we  may,  the  fact  remains  that 
God  does  make  marked  differences  in  both  the  lives 
and  deaths  of  even  his  equally  loved  children.  Of 
the  eleven  apostles  John  alone  was  spared  martyrdom. 
Persecuted,  banished,  often  in  jeopardy  of  his  life,  he 
yet  died  in  his  bed  in  a  good  old  age.  He  tarried, 
according  to  the  foretelling,  until  Christ's  coming  to 
destroy  Jerusalem — it  having  pleased  God  to  set  him 
apart  from  the  rest  for  the  honored  task  of  completing 
the  canon  of  his  revealed  and  written  Word. 

An  unaccountable,  if  not  unfair,  discrimination 
seems,  at  first  view,  to  be  made  here  against  Peter.  His 
own  later  warning,  indeed,  implies  how  entirely  natural 
it  is  for  us  to  wonder  at  the  "  fiery  trial  "  which  even 
the  best  beloved  of  our  brethren  are  sometimes  ap- 
pointed to  endure.  Of  a  certain  friend,  for  example, 
I  am  tempted  to  say,  "  He  is,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  no 
more  of  a  Christian  than  am  I.  Why,  then,  should 
God  give  to  him   so  much   better  a  time,   so  much 

137 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

more  honored  a  position,  than  he  gives  to  me  ?  "  Who 
can  tell  ?  Health  and  sickness,  weakness  and  strength, 
toil  and  ease,  poverty  and  wealth,  lowliness  and  lofti- 
ness of  rank,  ten  talents  and  two — these  widely  dif- 
ferent gifts  and  experiences  God  does  either  ordain  or 
permit.  To  some  He  gives  all  the  abounding  com- 
forts of  this  life  "  and  heaven  besides."  What  con- 
cern of  mine  if  He  does  ?  My  course  is  plain.  I  have 
but  to  follow  Qirist — sure,  if  I  do,  that  however  hard 
and  rough  the  way,  it  will  lead  to  the  same  bright  and 
happy  heaven  at  last — brighter  and  happier,  it  may 
be,  since  the  heavier  the  cross,  if  patiently  borne,  the 
richer  the  crown. 

Give  our  blind,  rebellious  impatience  its  way  and 
it  would  make  a  quick  average  of  these  so  unequally 
distributed  gifts,  attainments,  prosperities  and  ad- 
versities. Thus  of  one  who  has  been  long  and  sig- 
nally prospered  we  are  tempted  to  say :  "  Never  mind ; 
his  turn  will  come  one  of  these  days !  "  Perhaps  not. 
His  "  turn,"  in  that  sense,  may  never  come  at  all.  It 
may  please  the  Master  to  give  him  a  smooth  and  pleas- 
ant path  to  the  very  end.  "  What  is  that "  to  me  ? 
Is  there,  then,  such  a  superabundance  of  happiness  in 
the  world  that  I  should  enviously  wish  that  there  were 
less? 

Two  ambitious  sons  of  an  ambitious  mother  once 
asked  Jesus  for  what  they  mistakenly  imagined  were 
the  two  highest  honors  in  his  gift.  The  answering 
rebuke  and  questioning  test  are  as  fitting  now  as 
they  were  then :  "  How  poor  and  unworthy  is  your 

138 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

estimate  of  me  and  of  my  kingdom !  Enough,  if  you 
can  partake  with  me  of  this  my  cup  and  of  this  my 
baptism,  which  speak  not  of  any  earthly  glory  but 
only  of  loving  service  and  sacrifice  for  the  relieving 
of  the  suffering,  the  comforting  of  the  sorrowing,  and 
the  saving  of  the  lost." 

A   QUICK   TURN    FROM    SORROW   TO   JOY 

On  their  way  to  the  sepulchre  the  two  Marys  are 
walking  together  in  the  same  dark  shadow  that  from 
the  beginning  has  shrouded  the  hearts  of  mourners 
visiting  the  last  resting-places  of  their  dead.  They 
go,  looking  to  find  all  at  the  tomb  as  they  saw  it  left 
by  Joseph  and  Nicodemus  on  the  preceding  Friday 
afternoon.  It  is  as  quiet  as  it  was  then,  but  in  all  else 
how  changed !  The  stone  lying  at  a  distance  away 
and,  where  it  had  stood,  a  black  open  doorway  instead. 
The  accustomed  signs  of  death  are  gone.  Can  it  be 
that  they  had  missed  the  way;  that  they  have  come 
to  the  wrong  spot,  as  is  not  un frequently  the  case 
amid  the  intricate  windings  of  a  modern  city  cemetery  ? 
No,  they  cannot  have  mistaken  either  the  path  or  the 
place.  The  path  from  Jerusalem  is  both  short  and 
plain.  The  sepulchre  is  by  itself,  in  a  private  garden. 
The  place  and  its  surroundings  are  recognized  as 
soon  as  seen;  the  same  stone-hewn  vault,  the  same 
rocky  shelf  on  which  they  saw  tenderly  laid  the  lifeless 
body  of  their  Lord.  Here  lay  His  head,  and  there 
His  feet.    But  there  where  lay  His  feet  are  now  only 

139 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

the  linen  bandages  in  which  the  body  was  wound,  and 
here  wrapped  together  in  a  place  by  itself  is  the  napkin 
that  was  about  His  head.  Even  the  silence  is  changed ; 
more  profound  and  painful  than  it  would  be  were 
the  body  still  here. 

At  this  so  strangely  altered  appearance  the  two 
friends  are  most  deeply  and  painfully  perplexed^ — the 
perplexity  soon  turns  to  affright  as  close  beside  them 
is  suddenly  seen  standing,  with  lightning-like  coun- 
tenance and  snow-white  apparel,  an  angel  of  the  Lord. 
Falling  upon  their  knees  they  lean  forward,  bowing 
their  faces  in  terror  to  the  ground. 

From  this  terrified  suspense  they  are  quickly  re- 
lieved, however,  by  the  loving  tones  of  the  angel's 
voice  which  is  as  fear-dispelling  as  his  words :  "  You 
seek  Jesus  who  was  crucified.  He  is  not  here.  He 
is  risen.    Come  see  the  place  where  the  Lord  lay." 

But  why  this  "  Come  "  ?  Had  they  not  already  and 
but  just  now  seen  the  "  place  "  and  noticed  carefully 
how  everything  about  it  appeared?  Yet  well  does 
the  angel  say,  "  Come  " ;  so  differently  will  the  self- 
same burial-place  look  to  them,  now  that  they  have 
a  messenger  from  the  Father  to  stand  beside  them  and 
talk  to  them  of  the  resurrection.  When  at  the  angel's 
word  they  do  rise  and  look  again,  behold,  the  tomb 
is  no  longer  the  dread  place  to  them  that  it  was  before. 
In  that  chill  gloom  which  had  made  of  the  two  nights 
and  of  the  intervening  day  one  long  night  of  death, 
their  Lord  had  indeed  lain.  Why  is  He  not  here  now  ? 
Is  it  because  either  Pilate's  band,  the  faithless  gar- 

140 


THROUGH    THE    SIEVE 

dener,  or  the  faithful  disciples  had  first  disrobed  and 
then  stolen  him  away?  And  is  it  the  angel's  comfort 
that  he  will  at  once  go  and  dispute  with  Pilate  about 
the  body  so  that,  recovered  and  restored  to  its  former 
resting-place,  these  doubly-sorrowing  friends  may  yet 
re-embalm  Him  with  their  own  waiting  spices  and  with 
this  same  fine  linen  which  Joseph  bought  and  which 
the  grave-robbers  were  considerate  enough  to  leave 
behind  ? 

Far  sweeter  solace  than  that!  The  assurance  that 
never  again  will  Jesus  need  either  grave-clothes  or 
spices  or  even  a  tomb ;  that  having  entered  once  for 
all  that  dismal  waste  and  unbound  all  its  dread  fetters, 
never  shall  the  place  where  he  lay  wear  again  the 
gloomy  aspect  of  death ;  that  the  dark  door  of  the 
sepulchre  out  of  which  he  returns  conqueror  is  to  be 
evermore  the  gateway,  instead,  of  never-ending  life. 

To  complete  their  joy  the  angel  makes  the  women 
sharers  with  himself  in  this  ministry  of  consolation : 
"  Go  quickly  and  tell  His  disciples.  This  is  still  a 
troubled  morning  for  them  as  it  has  been  for  you. 
Lost  in  a  maze  of  sorrow ;  the  object  of  their  deepest 
love  and  fondest  hopes  gone,  they  know  not  whither ; 
stunned  and  bewildered,  they  wander  about,  desolate 
and  aimless  orphans.  Be  you  the  angels  to  cheer 
them  as  I  have  comforted  you.  Tell  them  that  Jesus 
is  alive  and  that  He  loves  them  still.  Tell  them  to  go 
to  their  Galilean  home  whence  He  called  them  and 
whence  they  followed  Him,  and  that  there  amid  the 
places  of  their  most  loving  communion  and  away  from 

^41 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

the  scenes  of  His  humiliation  and  death,  they  shall 
see  Him.     Lo,  I  have  told  you !  " 

They  need  no  second  telling.  The  wonderful  news 
gives  them  angels'  tongues  and  almost  angels'  wings. 
They  depart  quickly  from  the  sepulchre  with  fear  and 
great  joy  and  run  to  bring  the  disciples  word. 

That  angel  of  our  Lord's  resurrection  still  lives. 
Would  it  comfort  us  to  find  him  some  day  standing  in 
his  shining  garments  by  the  graves  of  our  own  loved 
ones,  and  to  have  him  assure  us  that  they  still  live, 
albeit  their  bodies  still  remain  buried  ?  A  surer  guide, 
a  holier  comforter  we  already  have  in  the  ever-present 
Jesus  who,  Himself  the  resurrection  and  the  life,  bids 
us  turn  our  eyes  up  from  our  loved  ones'  graves  to 
the  mansions  He  has  gone  to  prepare  for  them  in 
His  Father's  house. 

Have  we  sometimes  exclaimed  in  bitterness  of 
anguish,  "  O  Elmwood ;  O  Woodmere ;  O  Woodlawn ; 
O  Greenwood ;  how  you  mock  me  with  your  beauty  be- 
cause you  are  so  dumb !  "  Taking  Jesus  with  us  al- 
ways in  these  visits  of  sorrowful  remembrance,  we 
will  say  that  no  more.  The  friends  we  mourn  are 
with  Him  who  has  gone  before,  in  far  better  than  all 
places  of  even  sweetest  earthly  communion,  into  heaven 
itself. 

Such  is  the  new,  bright  chapter  in  the  annals  of  be- 
reavement which  was  opened  for  us  and  for  the  world 
by  that  early-morning  walk  of  the  spice-bearing  Marys 
to  the  sepulchre  of  their  risen  Lord. 


142 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 


SATAN'S    FALL   FORESEEN. 

A  carpenter's  apprentice  was  once  asked  by  his  sick 
pastor,  at  whose  house  he  was  then  working,  to  offer 
a  prayer  at  his  pastor's  bedside.  Many  a  young  man 
in  such  circumstances  would,  out  of  natural  diffidence, 
have  asked  to  be  excused.  But  that  young  mechanic 
consented,  and  so  moved  was  the  pastor  by  his  prayer 
that  he  took  the  young  apprentice  into  his  family  and 
educated  him  for  the  ministry ;  and,  as  it  proved  after- 
ward, for  missionary  work  in  India.  This  led  that 
same  pastor  to  the  establishment  of  a  Manual  Train- 
ing School  for  needy  Christian  young  men,  and  that 
school,  on  being  removed  from  Germantown  to  Easton, 
Pa.,  became  the  nucleus  of  Lafayette  College.  That 
modest,  uneducated  carpenter's  apprentice  saw  nothing 
beyond  what  seemed  to  him  at  that  time  a  simple  but 
difficult  duty ;  but  what  great  and  far-reaching  results 
did  Christ  foresee  then  and  does  the  world  see  now ! 

The  mother  of  Samuel  J.  Mills  dedicated  him  when 
an  infant  to  God.  Beyond  the  act  itself  she  did  not 
and  could  not  see.  But  in  and  beyond  that  faithful 
mother's  act  of  consecration  what  did  Christ  see? 
Looking  down  the  coming  years  Christ  traced  the 
career  of  that  infant  child ;  saw  him  a  student  in 
Williams  College ;  saw  him  renewing  there  his 
mother's  act  of  consecration ;  dedicating  himself  to 
foreign  missionary  work ;  enlisting  a  number  of  his 
fellow-students  in  the  same  cause  and  becoming  the 
virtual  founder  of  the  American  Board  of  Commis- 

143 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

sioners  for  Foreign  Missions.  What  did  Christ  see 
in  that  mother's  simple  act  of  consecration  ?  He  saw 
the  old  and  dreadful  superstitions  of  two  continents 
reeling  to  their  fall. 

The  work  done  by  the  Seventy  sent  out,  two  and 
two,  was  far  greater  than  they  had  themselves  been 
at  all  aware  of.  They  had  been  wholly  taken  up  with 
the  success  of  their  work  from  day  to  day,  and  beyond 
that  there  was  nothing  which  they  could  see.  But 
Jesus  tells  them  that  he  saw  a  great  deal  more  and 
a  great  deal  further.  He  assures  them  that  their 
humble  work  done  faithfully,  although  on  so  small 
a  field,  was  to  have  a  world-wide  influence;  that  it 
would  have  to  do  with  the  complete  overthrow  of 
the  Prince  of  Darkness  in  this  world ;  "  Behold,"  he 
said,  "  I  saw  Satan  as  lightning  fall  from  heaven." 

Jesus  sees  as  only  Jesus  can  see,  how  far  any  act 
done  by  him  in  however  humble  a  way,  in  however 
humble  a  sphere,  may  extend.  But  he  assures  us  that 
every  such  act  helps  toward  the  utter  casting  down 
of  error  and  wrong  and  toward  the  full  and  everlasting 
enthronement  of  truth  and  righteousness. 

LOVE'S    "FINALLY" 

Nearly  two-thirds  of  St.  Paul's  letter  (the  Second 
to  the  Thessalonians)  had  been  taken  up  with  matters 
which  concerned  the  brethren  to  whom  he  wrote ;  not 
a  word  as  yet  about  himself;  about  his  own  labors, 
hardships,  dangers  and  self-denials,  although  these  had 
been  so  many  and  so  great.     So  full  was  his  loving 

144 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

heart  of  concern  for  his  brethren's  trials,  perils  and 
temptations  that  he  had  cast  about  him  for  that  by 
which  they  might  be  shielded,  comforted  and  encour- 
aged. Only  then  does  he  say  "  finally  " — "  for  what 
remains,"  as  the  original  is.  As  much  as  to  say,  "  I 
will  improve  the  little  time  I  have  left  to  say  a  word 
about  myself.  I  need  your  prayers  as  much  as  you 
need  mine.     Brethren,  pray  for  us." 

In  our  own  letter-writing  we  are  apt  to  tell  about 
ourselves  first,  apologizing  for  it,  perhaps,  at  the  close. 
But  in  St.  Paul's  correspondence  we  see : 

Love's   beautiful  postponemeut   of  self. 

Then,  too,  although  he  does  say,  "  Pray  for  us,"  it 
is  not  after  all  for  himself,  but  for  the  great  work 
in  which  he  is  engaged.  He  no  sooner  remembers 
himself  than  he  forgets  himself :  "  Pray  for  us,  that 
the  word  of  the  Lord  may  have  free  course  and  be 
glorified."    Here  we  see : 

Love  for  self  losing  itself  in  care  for  its  chosen 
object. 

It  is  as  contributing  to  this  that  he  asks  them  to 
pray  that  he  "  may  be  delivered  from  unreasonable 
and  wicked  men  " — men  "  that  have  not  faith."  Here 
we  have : 

Lack  of  faith  as  that  which  makes  men  unreasonable 
and  wicked  in  their  treatment  of  those  enthusiastically 
engaged  in  proclaiming  the  gospel  of  Jesus. 

Now  comes  a  quick  and  happy  turn  from  a  merely 
negative  deliverance  to  positive  support  and  assurance 
of  success :  from  men  who  cannot  be  relied  on  for 

MS 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

help  to  One  who  can  :  "  The  Lord  is  faithful,  who  shall 
establish  you  and  keep  you  from  evil  " :  or, 

Love's  constant,  ever-to-he-trusted  care  of  its  own. 

This  love  of  God  is  that  to  which,  above  everything 
else,  we  need  to  have  our  hearts  "  directed,"  or  (as 
the  Greek  of  it  is)  "  made  to  go " ;  to  go,  not  in 
some  round-about,  dilatory  way,  but  in  a  straight  or 
direct  way,  indicating  how  liable  we  are  to  go  to  God's 
love — the  truest,  purest  and  surest  of  all — by  the  cir- 
cuit either  of  lesser  human  loves  or  of  some  form  or 
other  of  impatient,  half-doubting  legalism.  In  praying 
that  their  hearts  may  be  "  directed  into  the  love  of 
God  and  into  patient  waiting  for  Christ,"  St.  Paul 
shows  us  what  is 

Love's  most  needed,  most  earnest  prayer  for  those 
whom  it  would  bless. 


146 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

V 

FROM    CELL   TO    SONG 

And  what,  I  said,  is  this  to  me 

Who  doubt  the  Hfe  it  comes  to  teach. 
But  a  stray  pebble  from  the  beach, 

Worn  smooth  and  oval  by  the  sea  ? 

The  tiny  prison-house,  one  morn. 
In  ruins  lay,  a  shattered  shell ; 
But  joyous  out  from  heaven  fell 

A  sky-lark's  song,  and  Hope  was  born. 

BEST    OF   ALL 

If  harvests,  health  and  wealth  proclaim. 
And  trumpet  fitly  sound  his  fame, 
Who  grows  one  grain  where  he  grew  none 
Or,  growing,  grows  two  grains  for  one; 

Sure  Gabriel's  horn  must  louder  blow. 
And  glowing  hearts  must  warmer  glow 
When  loves,  who  never  loved  before, 
Or,  loving,  loves  a  little  more. 

RECOMPENSE 

Though  mute  the  muzzled  ox  treads  out  the  corn, 
Nor  tosses  sheaf  or  owner  with  his  horn ; 
Yet  if  unmuzzled,  gleaning  as  he  stept. 
The  old,  just  mandate  were  more  equal  kept. 
147 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 


AT   HOME   TO    STAY 

Where  crumbs  from  shaken  napkins  fall 
The  sparrows  come;  but,  short  their  stay, 
Pick  up  their  morsels  and  away 

To  sheltering  ivy  by  the  wall. 

Where  cities  spread  their  tables  wide, 
In  rush  the  morning  tides  of  men. 
But  evening  sees  them  all  again 

Safe  wafted  to  their  country  side. 

And  what  is  life,  dear  heart  of  love, 
But  one  day's  exile  of  thy  toil? 
And  wilt  thou  from  thy  task  recoil. 

So  near  to  heaven  and  home  above? 


148 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 


JUST   AS    THOU   ART 

Just  as  Thou  art ;  to  me,  a  child, 
Self-banished  and  unreconciled, 
To  win  through  patient  mercy  njild, 
Thou  comest,  Father,  unto  me. 

Just  as  Thou  art;  without  delay, 
Although  to  rescue  me,  Thy  way 
Grows  dark  with  Calvary's  bloody  day, 
Thou  comest,  Jesus,  unto  me. 

Just  as  Thou  art ;  my  guilty  soul. 
Beyond  my  struggling  will's  control, 
To  cleanse  from  sin  and  make  me  whole. 
Thou  comest.  Spirit,  unto  me. 

Just  as  Thou  art ;  blest  Three  in  One, 
Accepting  as  it  were  my  own 
The  praise  of  what  is  Thine  alone, 
Thou  comest,  Love  Divine,  to  me. 


MY  FLOWER-COVERED  FOOT-STOOL  (A  GIFT) 

Quick  they  forget  the  toilsome  hours, 

And  roughness  of  the  way, 
Whose  weary  feet  are  kissed  by  flowers. 
When  evening  shuts  the  day. 

149 


THROUGH     THE    SIEVE 

THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL:  1806-1906 

John  Wickliffe's  bones,  when  burned  to  dust, 

And  tossed  on  Avon's  tide, 
Lit  up  with  Freedom's  phosphor  glow 

Earth's  oceans,  dark  and  wide. 

Above  the  night  of  ignorance 

High  rose  his  Morning  Star 
When  spoke  the  Book,  which  else  were  dumb. 

In  our  vernacular. 

Praise  Learning's  Seat,  which  holds  that  Word 

True  master  of  all  books. 
Where  Science,  hand  in  hand  with  Faith, 

Beyond  the  horizon  looks. 

Where  five  brave  souls  made  strong  by  prayer, 

Their  banner  wide  unfurled. 
Re-heralding  the  Ascension  call, 

"Go,  win  for  Me  the  World;" 

And  plighted  troth,  with  their  own  hands 

To  bear  the  torch  of  hope 
To  lands  that,  to  the  utmost  verge. 

In  pagan  darkness  grope. 

The  Hoosac  to  the  Hudson  runs. 

The  Hudson  to  the  sea, 
And"  tidings  of  the  Cross  shall  spread 

Wide  as  the  waters  be. 

150 


INDEX 


INDEX 


A  Counterfeit  of  Life,  35 
A   Dishonor   to   God's    Love, 

44 

A  Footpath  Venture,  64 

"  Aha,"  40 

A  Hidden  Danger,  46 

A  Lesson  in  Christian  War- 
fare,  107 

A  New  Chime  of  Old  Bells, 

59 
A  Quick  Turn  from  Sorrow 

to  Joy,  139 
A  Religion  of  Facts,  93 
A  Sure  Guide  and  Goal,  30 
A  Test  of  Power,  8 
An  Ingot  of  Love,  10 
An  Original  Guest,  71 
An  Unsafe  Venture,  43 
An  Unsuspected  Name,  24 
An  Unwelcome  Gift,  61 
Apart  and  in  Secret,  75 
At    Home   to    Stay    (Poem), 

148 

Best  of  All  (Poem),  147 
Beyond  Peradventure,  ill 
Bible  Kakography,  3;^ 
Bible  Perspective,  26 

Charitable  to  Worms,  6 

Climbing,  51 

Common    Sense,    Faith    and 

Ignorance,  89 
Consistency  in  Wrong,  41 
Created  to  Good  Works,  49 

Deeper  than  Regret,  7 

Easily  Stopped,  34 
Eddy  and  Stream,  no 
Enjoyment     following     Sur- 
render, 98 
Eyes  that  See,  28 


Faith  Tested  by  Doubt,  8 
Fancy  for  Fact,  10 
From  Abel  to  Zacharias,  126 
From  Cell  to  Song  (Poem), 
147 

Gain  in  Beauty;  but  Loss  in 

Power,  35 
Giving  Envy  the  Slip,  24 
God's  Love  for  the  Sinless,  7 
Going  Through  the  Motions, 

82 
Growing;    Not    To,    but    In 

Grace,  50 

Heaping  and  Growing,  ^6 

Hidden  Links,  28 

How     Cathedrals     Do     Not 

Grow,  and  How  Lilies  JDo, 

14 

Inanimation,  15 
Instantaneous   Verification,  17 
Intercession    for    the    Ill-De- 
serving, 47 
"  Isms  "  and  "  Ists,"  81 

Just   as   Thou    Art    (Poem), 
149 

Life,  Lord  over  Death,  29 
Love's  "  Finally,"  144 

Making  the   Best  of  a   Mis- 
take, 13 

Neighborliness  next  to  God- 
liness, 59 
New  Snuffed,  2 
No  Second-birth  Suicide,  46 
Not  a  Hoof  Behind,  124 
Not  "  It,"  but  "  I,"  54 


153 


INDEX 


Not    Complaining,   but    Next 
Door  to  It,  7 

Opportunity,     the     Test     of 

Character,  117 
Our  One  Concern,  133 
Out-of-Place   Resolutions,   19 

Paul's    Quarrel    with    Peter, 

121 
Perfect  at  Last,  70 
Prayer  Endings,  104 
Praying  Overdone,  17 
Prying  Under,  40 

Quitting  His  Observatory,  57 

Recompense   (Poem),  147 
Re-introductions,  112 
Remembered    and    Forgotten, 
42 

Safety  in  Truth-telling,  11 
Satan's  Fall  Foreseen,  143 
Saved,  48 
Saving     Himself     and     His 

Hearers,  108 
Self-harming  Haste,  128 
Sifted,  39 
Sight-worship,  32 
Something  to  Eat,  50 

Taking   In   and   Giving   Out, 

36 
The    Cross,    the    Symbol    of 

Obedience,  114 
The  First  and  Second  Births, 

83 
The     Haystack     Centennial : 

1806-1906    (Poem),   150 
The  Impracticables,  11 


The  Lower  Ennobled  by  the 

Higher,  79 
The  Multitude  of  the  Saved, 

96 
The  One  Temptation,  55 
The  One  Thing  that  Counts, 

52 
The  Patience  of  Growth,  3 
The  Pterigium  of  Prejudice, 

38 
The  Right  of  Way,  34 
The  Ring  and  the  Feast,  20 
The  Silent  Life,  loo 
The  Spider's  Foot,  52 
The  Successful  Plea,  88 
The  Troubleman,  22 
The  True  Confessional,  19 
The  True  Master,  23 
The  Unchangeable  Past,  i 
The  Weighing  of  a  King,  119 
The  World's  Yesterday,  i 
Three     Traveling     Compan- 
ions, I 
Turned,  but  Not  Stopped,  2 
Two  Summers,  68 

Unfailing      and      Undiscour- 

aged,  20 
Unused  Spices,  85 

Varnish  and  Vitality,  7^ 
Vulture  and  Dove,  yy 

Welcome  Home,  45 

Weaned,  66 

What  Comes  from  Looking, 

16 
What  We  Can,  3 
Whirled,  21 
Write  to  Me  about  Heaven,  5 


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